Zhang Hui-Yan, Yu Hui-Min, Tang Hao-Lan, Lin Yu-Chao, Xiao Zicong, Yang Lin, Kang Jin-Ting, Shen Ji, Qin Liping, Huang Fang
State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric and Environmental Coevolution, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China.
CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Nat Commun. 2025 May 7;16(1):4248. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-59577-6.
Over long timescales, space weathering processes can modify the compositions of surface materials on the Moon. To assess the effects of space weathering of lunar soils, we study Si isotopes of Chang'E-5 (CE-5) and Chang'E-6 (CE-6) returned samples, and lunar meteorites. Here we show that both bulk soils from CE-5 and CE-6 exhibit heavier Si isotopic compositions than the basalt clasts within the soils and lunar meteorites, indicating that the space weathering obviously increase δSi of lunar soils. Furthermore, the CE-6 soil from the lunar farside has heavier Si isotopic values than the average of CE-5 soils from the nearside, suggesting that the CE-6 soil has experienced a higher space weathering degree than the CE-5 soils. This increased weathering degree could be attributed to either a longer weathering period or stronger micrometeorite impacts on CE-6 soil from farside compared to CE-5 soils from nearside.
在较长的时间尺度上，空间风化过程会改变月球表面物质的成分。为了评估月球土壤空间风化的影响，我们研究了嫦娥五号（CE-5）和嫦娥六号（CE-6）返回样品以及月球陨石的硅同位素。我们发现，CE-5和CE-6的整体土壤的硅同位素组成比土壤和月球陨石中的玄武岩碎屑更重，这表明空间风化明显增加了月球土壤的δSi。此外，来自月球背面的CE-6土壤的硅同位素值比来自近侧的CE-5土壤的平均值更重，这表明CE-6土壤经历的空间风化程度高于CE-5土壤。这种风化程度的增加可能归因于风化时间更长，或者与来自近侧的CE-5土壤相比，来自背面的CE-6土壤受到的微陨石撞击更强。
