Diverse glasses revealed from Chang’E-5 lunar regolith

ABSTRACT

Lunar glasses with different origins act as snapshots of their formation processes, providing a rich archive of the Moon's formation and evolution. Here, we reveal diverse glasses from Chang’E-5 (CE-5) lunar regolith, and clarify their physical origins of liquid quenching, vapor deposition and irradiation damage respectively. The series of quenched glasses, including rotation-featured particles, vesicular agglutinates and adhered melts, record multiple-scale impact events. Abundant micro-impact products, like micron- to nano-scale glass droplets or craters, highlight that the regolith is heavily reworked by frequent micrometeorite bombardment. Distinct from Apollo samples, the indigenous ultra-elongated glass fibers drawn from viscous melts and the widespread ultra-thin deposited amorphous rims without nanophase iron particles both indicate a relatively gentle impact environment at the CE-5 landing site. The clarification of multitype CE-5 glasses also provides a catalogue of diverse lunar glasses, meaning that more of the Moon's mysteries, recorded in glasses, could be deciphered in future.

Abstract

There are diverse glassy materials transforming from liquid, vapor and solid in the Chang'E-5 lunar soils. Particularly, the discovery of ultra-elongated glass fibers and ultra-thin deposited amorphous rims reveals a gentle impact environment of the landing site.