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China Announces Discovery of Two New Moon Minerals
(MENAFN) China announced Friday the discovery of two previously unknown lunar minerals, state media reported, marking another milestone in the nation's accelerating deep-space exploration program.
The minerals were extracted from lunar samples retrieved by the Chang'e-5 mission and identified by the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The Chang'e-5 spacecraft returned to Earth in December 2020, delivering approximately 1,731 grams of lunar material collected from Oceanus Procellarum. The haul represented China's first-ever lunar samples and the first such specimens brought to Earth in 44 years.
The CNSA identified the two newly confirmed minerals as magnesiochangesite-(Y) and changesite-(Ce), pushing the cumulative number of moon-derived minerals discovered globally to eight.
The announcement came during the opening ceremony of the 2026 Space Day of China, held in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China. The CNSA confirmed that both minerals had received formal approval from the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association.
The latest finding builds on China's earlier lunar mineralogy breakthrough — in 2022, Chinese scientists identified changesite-(Y), becoming the country's first-ever discovered lunar mineral.
China's lunar ambitions have gathered considerable momentum in recent years. In 2019, the Chang'e-4 probe made history as the first spacecraft ever to land on the far side of the moon — a feat no other nation had previously accomplished.
The minerals were extracted from lunar samples retrieved by the Chang'e-5 mission and identified by the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The Chang'e-5 spacecraft returned to Earth in December 2020, delivering approximately 1,731 grams of lunar material collected from Oceanus Procellarum. The haul represented China's first-ever lunar samples and the first such specimens brought to Earth in 44 years.
The CNSA identified the two newly confirmed minerals as magnesiochangesite-(Y) and changesite-(Ce), pushing the cumulative number of moon-derived minerals discovered globally to eight.
The announcement came during the opening ceremony of the 2026 Space Day of China, held in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China. The CNSA confirmed that both minerals had received formal approval from the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association.
The latest finding builds on China's earlier lunar mineralogy breakthrough — in 2022, Chinese scientists identified changesite-(Y), becoming the country's first-ever discovered lunar mineral.
China's lunar ambitions have gathered considerable momentum in recent years. In 2019, the Chang'e-4 probe made history as the first spacecraft ever to land on the far side of the moon — a feat no other nation had previously accomplished.
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