Overview
- Findings were published November 14 in Science Advances by a team from IGCAS and Shandong University.
- The minerals were identified in soil returned in 2024 from the Moon’s South Pole–Aitken Basin on the lunar far side.
- Electron microscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the crystalline phases and ruled out terrestrial contamination.
- The study proposes that large impacts vaporized surface material, desulfurized troilite, oxidized released iron, and deposited hematite and maghemite alongside magnetite.
- The results provide sample-based support for earlier hints of lunar oxidation from Chang’e-5 studies and help clarify candidate carriers behind unexplained magnetic anomalies.