Scientists discover rare meteorite relics in Chang’e-6 lunar samples

New Delhi: Chinese scientists studying lunar samples brought back the Chang’e-6 lunar mission have identified rare meteorite relics that could reshape the understanding of mass transfer in the Solar System.

The study, published in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by a research team from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (GIG) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xinhua news agency reported.

The CI chondrites — a type of meteorite rich in water and organic materials that typically originates in the outer Solar System — are so rare on Earth that they account for less than one per cent of all collected meteorites.

In contrast to Earth, the Moon has almost no atmosphere and plate tectonics, meaning it preserves a pristine record of ancient asteroid impacts — like a “natural archive.”

Using advanced techniques to examine mineral composition and oxygen isotopes, the researchers scrutinised lunar soil and confirmed that the fragments came from CI-like chondrites.

The study implies that the Earth-Moon system may have experienced more collisions from carbonaceous chondrites than scientists had previously estimated.

“This discovery not only indicates that material from the outer Solar System can migrate to the inner Solar System, also has important implications for explaining the origin of water on the lunar surface,” said Lin Mang, a researcher at GIG.

“It also provides new directions for future research on the distribution and evolution of lunar water resources,” he added.

Moreover, the study systematically established methods for identifying meteoritic materials in extraterrestrial samples.

In 2024, Chang’e-6 made history by bringing 1,935.3 grams of lunar far-side samples back to Earth. These samples were collected from the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin, the largest, deepest, and oldest basin on the Moon.

IANS