Chinese scientists find two new minerals on the moon that could explain the mystery of the lunar landscape – Technologist

“Micrometeorite impacts have been known to play a key role in altering the lunar landscape, but how those transformations actually happened remained elusive,” the researchers wrote in a release on the institute’s website.

Titanium is an element commonly found on Earth and the moon. However, it only exists as an oxide in nature. In its dominant form, titanium dioxide (TiO2), each titanium atom is bonded to two oxygen atoms to create a stable, energetically favourable structure.

They then used cutting-edge transmission electron microscopy techniques to examine the glass beads, and found a tiny impact crater on the surface of one of the beads, according to the paper.

On the rim of the crater, they detected three titanium-containing minerals – rutile (TiO2), trigonal Ti2O, and triclinic Ti2O. The latter two share the same chemical composition but have different crystal structures.

While Ti2O does not exist in nature on Earth, it has been prepared in a laboratory to make photocatalytic thin film materials, the researchers said.

Such a scenario was predicted by US planetary scientist Bruce Hapke five decades ago, the researchers said.

Their work was supported by the National Key Research & Development Programme, the Strategic Priority Programme of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.