China Discovers New Type of Crystal on the Moon

China is now the third country to discover a new mineral on the Moon.

China has recently discovered a crystal from the Moon. It is made of a mineral that was previously unknown. The country also confirms that the surface of the Moon contains an important material for nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is a process which happens in the sun and other stars which can provide unlimited energy.

The crystal was found in lunar samples that China’s Chang’e-5 collected when it landed on the Moon in 2020. The Chang’e-5 brought about 2kg of rocks from the Moon back to Earth.

The samples that China collected are the first Moon rocks brought to Earth since 1976. In the new samples, scientists at the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology found a crystal that is thinner than a human hair.

The crystal is made of a newly discovered mineral that is now called Changesite-(Y). The new mineral and the Moon missions are named after the Chinese Moon goddess Chang’e.

Changesite—(Y) is the first mineral that China has discovered on the Moon and the sixth new mineral discovered in samples from the Moon. The U.S. and Russia are the only other countries that have found new minerals there.

The crystal is clear and comes from the northern part of the Moon which had many active volcanoes about 1.2 billion years ago.

Chinese state owned media says that the lunar samples also contain helium-3, which is a material that scientists and sci-fi writers have been excited about for a long time. It is potentially a fuel for nuclear fusion, the same type of energy found in stars. It’s not clear yet if we will be able to recreate that energy on Earth.

Helium-3 is very rare on Earth, but plentiful on the Moon. China, the U.S. and other countries are interested in extracting it from the Moon in the future.