Mineralogical and chemical properties inversed from 21-lunar-day VNIS observations taken during the Chang’E-4 mission

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Zeng, Qinghong, Chen, Shengbo, Zhang, Yuanzhi, Mu, Yongling, Dai, Rui, Yang, Congyu, Li, Anzhen, Lu, Peng
• Other Authors: Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation of China
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2021
• Subjects: Multidisciplinary; South Pole; Aitken; South pole
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93694-8; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-93694-8.pdf; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-93694-8

Abstract We report on the mineralogical and chemical properties of materials investigated by the lunar rover Yutu-2, which landed on the Von Kármán crater in the pre-Nectarian South Pole–Aitken (SPA) basin. Yutu-2 carried several scientific payloads, including the Visible and Near-infrared Imaging Spectrometer (VNIS), which is used for mineral identification, offering insights into lunar evolution. We used 86 valid VNIS data for 21 lunar days, with mineral abundance obtained using the Hapke radiative transfer model and sparse unmixing algorithm and chemical compositions empirically estimated. The mineralogical properties of the materials at the Chang’E-4 (CE-4) site referred to as norite/gabbro, based on findings of mineral abundance, indicate that they may be SPA impact melt components excavated by a surrounding impact crater. We find that CE-4 materials are dominated by plagioclase and pyroxene and feature little olivine, with 50 of 86 observations showing higher LCP than HCP in pyroxene. In view of the effects of space weathering, olivine content may be underestimated, with FeO and TiO 2 content estimated using the maturity-corrected method. Estimates of chemical content are 7.42–18.82 wt% FeO and 1.48–2.1 wt% TiO 2 , with a low-medium Mg number (Mg # ~ 55). Olivine-rich materials are not present at the CE-4 landing site, based on the low-medium Mg #. Multi-origin materials at the CE-4 landing site were analyzed with regard to concentrations of FeO and TiO 2 content, supporting our conclusion that the materials at CE-4 do not have a single source but rather are likely a mixture of SPA impact melt components excavated by surrounding impact crater and volcanic product ejecta.