USTC receives lunar samples brought back by China's Chang'e-5 probe

Some professors at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) received the first batch of lunar samples from the Chang’e 5 mission at a ceremony held in Beijing on Monday.

The university, based in east China’s Anhui province, was among the country’s 13 research institutes to receive the samples, weighing 17.4764 grams and divided into 21 lots.

The samples include dust and rock fragments collected from the lunar surface by the Chang’e 5 lander.

The Chang’e 5 probe was launched on November 24, 2020 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province. It landed on the moon on December 1 and returned with 1,731 grams of lunar samples on December 17.

The lunar samples have been exhibited in the Great Hall of the People, the Museum of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the National Museum of China, Jiangsu province and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

By studying the lunar samples, scientists will have a new understanding of the evolution of the moon and planets and the livability of planets, said Zhu Rixiang, director of the Expert Committee on Lunar Samples and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.