Spectral interpretation of late-stage mare basalt mineralogy unveiled by Chang'E-5 samples.

ABSTRACT: The western maria of lunar near-side are widely covered with late-stage mare basalts. Due to the lack of returned samples, the mineralogy of the late-stage basalts was previously speculated as having high abundance of olivine based on remote sensing observation. However, here we show that Chang'E-5 (CE-5) lunar soil samples, the ground truth from past unsampled lunar late-stage mare region, give a different interpretation. Our laboratory spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses of the CE-5 soil samples demonstrate that their special spectral signatures are representative of iron-rich high-Ca pyroxene rather than olivine. Considering the spectral and compositional similarities between CE-5 soil samples and lunar late-stage basalts, the mineralogy and petrology of CE-5 samples may

SUBMITTER: Liu D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9550791 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature