Studying crystal defects is essential for understanding a material’sorigin, evolution, and behavior. Lunar materials can exhibit defects from spaceweathering including high-energy ion implantations, which rarely happenson Earth. Investigating the variation in defects’ structure along the directionof implantation and its impact on lunar materials’ transformation is vital,but unfortunately, this remains unclear. Using multi-scale, 3D characterizationof lunar olivine from Chang’e-5 mission, it is found that solar flaretracks, common lunar defects induced by implantation, have a “near-linear”structure. These tracks show varied shuffling of oxygen and silicon atomsand vacancies along the traces. Intriguingly, the in situ electron microscopyheating experiments, detected for the first time that the evolution of solar flaretracks leads to the generation of iron nanoparticles and the release of oxygenupon heating. This reaction is rarely observed on Earth and unreportedon the Moon before, which produces resources that can be harnessedfor future human exploration and the establishment of lunar habitats.

Link:Solar Flare Tracks: Unveiling Features and Their Impact on Distinct Lunar Soil Transformations