Chinese scientists have recently discovered two new minerals in lunar samples retrieved more than five years ago during the Chang'e 5 mission to the moon.

At an event held on Friday in Chengdu, Sichuan province, to mark China's 11th Space Day, the China National Space Administration announced that the new minerals, named magnesiochangesite-(Y) and changesite-(Ce), have been reviewed and approved by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association.

These are the second and third lunar minerals discovered by Chinese scientists, following the identification of changesite-(Y) in 2022. They are also the seventh and eighth lunar minerals ever found by scientists around the world in samples brought from the moon.

Magnesiochangesite-(Y) was discovered by a research team led by Li Ziying, a senior scientist at the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology of the China National Nuclear Corp.

The mineral was found within basalt clasts in drill-collected lunar samples, with a grain size ranging from approximately two to 30 micrometers.

Changesite-(Ce) was discovered by a team led by Hou Zengqian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. It has been identified both in Chang'e 5 samples and in a lunar meteorite that fell within China's territory.

The mineral was found along the margins of anorthite, ferrosilite, fluorapatite and ilmenite crystals, and has a grain size of approximately three to 15 micrometers.

According to the space administration, both substances are rare earth phosphate minerals hidden within the fine particles of lunar soil and feature a delicate and unique crystal structure, with no identical mineral counterparts found on Earth.

The two new minerals, along with changesite-(Y), are part of the merrillite group — a class of phosphate minerals commonly found in samples from the moon, Mars and asteroids, but exhibiting compositional diversity and heterogeneous distribution across different planetary bodies.

The space administration noted that the new discoveries will provide critical scientific evidence for in-depth research into the moon's material composition, geological evolution and origin.

They represent new achievements of integrating deep-space exploration with scientific research, and are of great significance for advancing humanity's understanding of the moon and the entire universe, it said.

The Chang'e 5 robotic mission, one of the world's most notable space activities in 2020, brought 1,731 grams of lunar rocks and soil to Earth, achieving a historic accomplishment about 44 years after the last lunar samples were collected by the Soviet Union in 1976.

The 23-day mission made China the third country to retrieve materials from the moon, after the United States and the Soviet Union.

According to senior scientist Li, the site where the Chang'e 5 probe landed and collected samples from was formed relatively recently in geological terms compared with the landing sites of the US' Apollo mission and the Soviet Union's Luna mission, making the features of the new samples different.

Magnesiochangesite-(Y) is a new member of the merrillite group and boasts a unique crystal structure and distinct compositional characteristics, Li said.

"Its discovery has expanded the inventory of identified lunar minerals and provided a new mineralogical reference for research on the moon's formation and evolution, magmatic activities and chemical differentiation processes," he added.