World Earth Day 2026,The China Geological Survey of the Ministry of Natural Resources announced the latest research results of the "Pakepake005" meteorite.This meteorite was discovered in the Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang in 2024.Approved by the Nomenclature Committee of the International Meteorite Society, it was confirmed as lunar clastic breccia, filling the gap in the discovery of native lunar meteorites in my country.
Research shows that this meteorite records at least two key geological events in the evolution of the moon: one is the famous Imbrium Basin impact event about 3.92 billion years ago, which profoundly reshaped the lunar landscape.
The other was the extremely low titanium basalt magma activity that occurred about 3.49 billion years ago. This special volcanic eruption showed that the interior of the moon was still very hot at that time and volcanic activity was frequent.
What is even more remarkable is that a new mineral - "cerium magnesium chang'e" - was also discovered in the meteorite.This mineral has been approved by a review vote of the International Mineralogical Association, becoming the eleventh new lunar mineral discovered by humans and the third new lunar mineral discovered in lunar meteorites.
The formation process of lunar meteorites is quite "thrilling": when the surface of the moon is violently impacted by asteroids and other celestial bodies, some rocks are "smashed" out of the moon, drift in space, and eventually fall to the earth. Various lunar materials undergo fragmentation, mixing and re-cementation to form composite rocks, faithfully recording the evolution history of the moon at different stages and from different sources.
Deciphering the secrets contained in this 44-gram meteorite is inseparable from a domestic high-resolution secondary ion probe mass spectrometer. This equipment broke the foreign technology monopoly and achieved transcendence."It is like a CT scan of a rock. It can accurately obtain internal chemical information without dissolving the sample, and conduct high-precision analysis of almost all elements and isotopes." Che Xiaochao, associate researcher at the Planetary Science Research Center of the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, said that the instrument is also widely used in semiconductors, new energy materials and other fields.
