Chinese geologist’s images bring moon under a microscope
- Photos of fine-grained soil particles will go on show in Beijing to mark the Mid-Autumn Festival
- The images are all taken from tiny sample of moon rock – named CE5C0600YJFM00402 – that was collected by the Chang’e 5 probe
“The bright moon was a mystery for me as a kid. Now that I’m lucky enough to work with real moon samples, I wanted to share what I see with people who are curious,” he said.
An exhibition opened on Saturday on the campus of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in northeastern Beijing, putting on display images of fine-grained particles Yang loaned the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The soils, which are smaller than a flour particle or the cross-section of a human hair, were photographed under electronic and polarised light microscopes, each image accompanied with a note on its weight, age, composition and so on.
As a joint effort between the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the Institute of Computing Technology, the exhibition aims to present “the highest resolution and most readable images of lunar soil particles in human history,” the organisers said.
Soils on the moon and those on earth are formed in very different ways, said Yang, who joined the Institute of Geology and Geophysics in 2010 to develop instruments for analysing moon rocks collected by the country’s space programme.
While terrestrial soil is shaped by wind, water and biological activities, lunar soil is the result of constant bombardment from meteorites and cosmic particles.