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Chinese media says that when he explored the back of the moon, the country's Yutu-2 lunar rover came across a unique "gel-like" substance of unknown origin, sitting in a small crater.
What we know up to here: Yutu-2 made this discovery during its eighth lunar day on the moon crossing an area riddled with small craters of impact (a lunar day lasts 29.5 terrestrial days; this one extends from late July to early August). A member of the rover team noticed a strange and colorful luster in one of the recent images of the mission. The team asked the rover to study it more closely. The only real details published by China so far are that the material used is similar to a gel and has an "unusual color".
What could it be: At the present time, the best explanation we can have is that the material used is not actually a gel, but probably a glass made of rock or regolith that melted a long time ago, at the Moon's surface, under the effect of a high-energy meteorite. same kind of pieces of trininite formed after meteorite impacts on Earth.
Strange materials are not unknown on the Moon: in 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts discovered an orange ground. But no lunar mission has ever encountered a glassy or gel-like material. Here again, it is the first mission to study the hidden face of the moon.
Yutu-2 continues to hit above his weight: After beating his one in two chance of crumbling miserably on the surface of the moon In January, Yutu-2 progressed smoothly and studied the geology of the moon as it went. The rover has already found and analyzed pieces of the lunar mantle thanks to its visual and near infrared spectrometer, the same instrument used to study more closely the gel-like substance. There is great hope that such discoveries will help to give shape to the history of water ice on the moon, and to indicate to future lunar prospectors the best way to harvest them.
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