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

Jianjun Liu; Bin Liu; Xin Ren; Chunlai Li; Rong Shu; Lin Guo; Songzheng Yu; Qin Zhou; Dawei Liu; Xingguo Zeng; Xingye Gao; Guangliang Zhang; Wei Yan; Hongbo Zhang; Lihui Jia; Shifeng Jin; Chunhua Xu; Xiangjin Deng; Jianfeng Xie; Jianfeng Yang; Changning Huang; Wei Zuo; Yan Su; Weibin Wen; Ziyuan Ouyang

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-30807-5

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

Nat Commun. 2022 Jun 14;13(1):3119. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30807-5.

Authors

Jianjun Liu^#^{1

2}, Bin Liu^#¹, Xin Ren¹, Chunlai Li^{3

4}, Rong Shu⁵, Lin Guo^{1

2}, Songzheng Yu^{1

2}, Qin Zhou¹, Dawei Liu¹, Xingguo Zeng¹, Xingye Gao¹, Guangliang Zhang¹, Wei Yan¹, Hongbo Zhang^{1

2}, Lihui Jia⁶, Shifeng Jin⁷, Chunhua Xu⁷, Xiangjin Deng⁸, Jianfeng Xie⁹, Jianfeng Yang¹⁰, Changning Huang¹¹, Wei Zuo^{1

2}, Yan Su^{1

2}, Weibin Wen¹, Ziyuan Ouyang^{1

12}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China. licl@nao.cas.cn.
⁴ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China. licl@nao.cas.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Space Active Opto-electronics Technology, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200083, China. shurong@mail.sitp.ac.cn.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China.
⁷ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
⁸ Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, Beijing, 100094, China.
⁹ Beijing Aerospace Control Center, Beijing, 100094, China.
¹⁰ Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, 710119, China.
¹¹ Beijing Institute of Space Mechanics Electricity, China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing, 100076, China.
¹² Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550081, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

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.