Evidence of water on the lunar surface from Chang’E-5 in-situ spectra and returned samples

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 3119
• Main Authors: Liu, Jianjun, Liu, Bin, Ren, Xin, Li, Chunlai, Shu, Rong, Guo, Lin, Yu, Songzheng, Zhou, Qin, Liu, Dawei, Zeng, Xingguo, Gao, Xingye, Zhang, Guangliang, Yan, Wei, Zhang, Hongbo, Jia, Lihui, Jin, Shifeng, Xu, Chunhua, Deng, Xiangjin, Xie, Jianfeng, Yang, Jianfeng, Huang, Changning, Zuo, Wei, Su, Yan, Wen, Weibin, Ouyang, Ziyuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 14.06.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/33/445; 704/445; Apatite; Earth magnetosphere; High temperature; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydration; Laboratories; Lunar landing; Lunar soil; Lunar surface; multidisciplinary; Remote sensing; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Shielding; Solar wind
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30807-5

The distribution range, time-varying characteristics, and sources of lunar water are still controversial. Here we show the Chang’E-5 in-situ spectral observations of lunar water under Earth’s magnetosphere shielding and relatively high temperatures. Our results show the hydroxyl contents of lunar soils in Chang’E-5 landing site are with a mean value of 28.5 ppm, which is on the weak end of lunar hydration features. This is consistent with the predictions from remote sensing and ground-based telescopic data. Laboratory analysis of the Chang’E-5 returned samples also provide critical clues to the possible sources of these hydroxyl contents. Much less agglutinate glass contents suggest a weak contribution of solar wind implantation. Besides, the apatite present in the samples can provide hydroxyl contents in the range of 0 to 179 ± 13 ppm, which shows compelling evidence that, the hydroxyl-containing apatite may be an important source for the excess hydroxyl observed at this young mare region. Laboratory analysis of returned Chang’E-5 samples from the lunar surface show their hydroxyl contents to be on the weak end of lunar hydration features.