Lunar meteorite debris may reveal water.

A photo taken on January 11, 2019, by the Chang’e-4 lander shows the Yutu-2 rover. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese scientists have discovered meteorite debris on the far side of the Moon, which may shed light on a major water source.

A team of researchers at the State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, operated by the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported that they recently discovered “glassy materials” within a two-meter‑wide crater in the South Pole–Aitken Basin. This basin on the far side of the Moon is the remnant of a carbonaceous chondrite that did not fully vaporize upon impact with the lunar surface.

Carbonaceous chondrites are meteorites that originated in the asteroid belt near Jupiter and are considered among the oldest objects in the Solar System. According to the research team led by Liu Yang, their presence on the Moon may indicate a source of water on this airless celestial body.

It published this finding in the November issue of Nature Astronomy, explaining that although fragments of carbonaceous chondrites have been identified in samples returned by the U.S. Apollo missions, “no direct observations of carbonaceous chondrite remnants have been made on the lunar surface through remote-sensing techniques.”

Impactors are considered the primary contributors of water and ice to the Moon. Compared with other types of small bodies, carbonaceous asteroids have higher water content, which means that the water they carry is more likely to evaporate and remain on the lunar surface.

Chinese researchers reported that, while observing a lunar crater with the Yutu-2 rover, they detected these remnants in high-spectral images spanning the visible and near-infrared ranges.

Liu stated that this discovery also suggests the possible presence of impactor remnants in younger materials on the lunar surface, such as the soil samples returned by China’s Chang’e‑5 mission. He added that analyzing these remnants will help scientists advance research into the composition and evolution of impactors in the Earth–Moon system and broaden their understanding of the Solar System’s impact history.

Liu said that in the near future, remote-sensing spectral data with higher spatial resolution will give scientists the opportunity to discover similar features elsewhere on the Moon, enabling them to deepen their understanding of the origin and distribution of water on our closest celestial neighbor.

China’s second lunar rover, Yutu-2, has now been operating for 1,065 Earth days, cementing its status as the longest‑operating rover on the Moon. This record was previously held by its predecessor, Yutu, which worked on the lunar surface for 972 days—far exceeding its designed three‑month mission life.

Yutu 2 is part of the ongoing Chang’e‑4 robotic exploration mission, marking humanity’s first attempt to land on and closely study the far side of the Moon. The mission was launched in December 2018 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province aboard a Long March‑3B carrier rocket.

The probe achieved a soft landing on the far side of the Moon on January 3, 2019, and subsequently deployed the Yutu-2 rover to traverse and conduct scientific investigations at its landing site within the South Pole–Aitken Basin, the largest and oldest impact basin on the Moon.

From ChinaDaily