Moon dust “rarer than gold” arrives in the United Kingdom from China

The first Moon Rock samples brought back to earth in almost 50 years have arrived in the United Kingdom – loaned from China.

The tiny dust grains are now locked in a safe in a high security installation in Milton Keynes – we were given first glance.

Professor Mahesh Anand is the only scientist in the United Kingdom to have been loaned this extremely rare material, which he describes as “more precious than gold dust”.

“No one in the world had access to China samples, so it's a great honor and a huge privilege,” he said.

After having cringe and zaps the dust with lasers, Professor Anand's team hopes to answer the fundamental questions about how the moon was formed and on the first years of planet Earth.

Inside the grains of dust could be proof to support the theory of scientists that the Moon was made from the debris thrown when the earth struck a planet the size of a March 4.5 billion years ago.

China collected the rocks on its Chang'e 5 space mission in 2020 when it landed in a volcanic area called Mons Rümker.

A robotic arm drilled in the ground to collect 2 kg of equipment, which was brought back to earth in a capsule that landed in inner Mongolia.

It was the first successful lunar sampling since a Soviet mission in 1976 and catapulted China in a leading position in the new space race.

Now, following a long tradition of global collaboration between space scientists, China has for the first time granted seven international researchers access to samples to allow them to make new discoveries.

The tiny bottles were given to Professor Anand for a glamorous ceremony in Beijing last week, where he met colleagues from Russia, Japan, Pakistan and Europe.

“It was almost like a parallel universe-and China is so far ahead of us in terms of investment in space programs,” he said.

He returned to the United Kingdom with the precious cargo in the safest place he might think – his hand luggage.

In his laboratory at the University Open of Milton Keynes, we climb on sticky carpets to clean our shoes and put plastic gloves, dresses, hair nets and caps.

The environment inside this high security room must be impeccable to avoid contamination.

If the terrestrial material mixes with these extraterrestrial stains, it could permanently ruin the analysis that the team of Professor Anand will do the trick.

We cush up on the ground in front of a row of safes. Professor Anand unravelled one and carefully removes a Ziplock bag with three containers the size of the boxes that could keep a necklace.

Bullshit firmly in each is a transparent bottle with a dark gray sprinkling at the bottom.

It is the dust of the moon.

He seems disappointing, but it is humiliating to think of his cosmic journey.

And Professor Anand said that they don't need more than this 60 mg in total.

“Here, the little one is powerful. Believe me, just take care of years to come because we specialize in work on the microphone,” he adds.

In a laboratory in the corridor, the technician Kay Knight will be the first person to work on the grains when the bottles are open.

She has been cutting and crushed pieces of rocks for 36 years, but it will be the first time that she has been working on something directly from the lunar surface.

“I am extremely excited,” she said, after showing us how she cuts meteorites using a diamond blade.

“But I'm nervous-there are not many samples and they can't really go very easily. These are high issues,” she adds.

After preparing the samples, they will pass through two other laboratories.

In one, we see a machine with a complex network of countless tubes, valves and threads.

The technician Sasha Verchovsky has built her since the early 1990s. He shows us the small cylinder where dust specifications can be heated to 1400 ° C. This will help them extract carbon, nitrogen and noble gases.

This is completely unique and is one of the reasons why Professor Anand is thinking that his laboratory has been chosen to receive rare samples.

James Malley, a research technician, operates a machine that can determine the amount of oxygen contained in dust specifications.

He shows us a test of what he will do.

“I'm going to hit this grain on the set with a laser,” he said, showing the enlarged scene on a computer screen.

“It will start to shine, and you will see it melt inwards,” he said.

The team is one year old to complete their research. In the end, their search for answers will probably end up destroying the samples.

But China has gone further since the Chang'e 5 mission.

In 2024, its launch of Chang'e 6 brought back the first samples on the other side of the moon. It is a deeply mysterious place that could have signs of long -term volcanic lava flows.

“I really hope it is the beginning of a long -term collaboration between China and international scientists,” said Professor Anand.

“Many of us have built our careers working on samples returned by Apollo Missions, and I think it is a fantastic tradition to follow. I hope other countries will follow,” he adds.

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