June 30, 2024 – 08:07
Chang'e-5 was one of the major achievements of China's space program in December 2020: the probe successfully landed on the moon, collected rock samples, then returned them to Earth in a lander. Sample analysis has been ongoing ever since, and now Chinese scientists are baffled To discover It was found during his investigation: Natural multi-layered graphene was found in the lunar sample.
Graphene is a unique form of carbon, a very thin layer of carbon just one atom thick. It is an extremely strong, lightweight and flexible material, but it is not easy to produce. In 2010, two Russian physicists were awarded the Nobel Prize for developing a new method for doing so. Of course, we do not yet know how much lunar graphene is available, but the life of a future lunar colony, and indeed the extraction of raw materials on the Moon in general, would be completely disrupted by this kind of mineral treasure.
It's more interesting a questionHow did graphene get there? Its mere presence contradicts scientific theories describing the moon’s formation. The generally accepted theory is that an asteroid collided with Earth billions of years ago, and the moon was created as a result of this catastrophe. However, the presence of graphene doesn’t fit that picture, and nothing like it has been found in rock samples to date, mostly from the American Apollo missions.
According to the researchers, of course, it is possible that they have only found a rare anomaly, which could have arisen, for example, by a meteorite impact, and graphene is not a typical component of lunar rocks. And since obtaining new samples is not a completely simple process, the question will probably remain open for some time.
