China National Space Administration (CNSA) and China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA) jointly announced Friday that researchers studying samples returned from the Moon by China's Chang'e-5 mission had discovered a new lunar mineral.



China identified this new mineral on the Moon, making it the sixth time that has happened in human history. According to Dong Baotong, deputy director of the CAEA, the latest discovery places China as the third nation in the world to have identified a new mineral on the Moon.

The new mineral, which has been named Changesite-(Y), is a kind of colorless transparent columnar crystal. It was discovered from an analysis of lunar basalt particles by a research team from the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology, a subsidiary of the China National Nuclear Corporation, China News Service reported.

The Changesite-(Y) has been officially approved as a new mineral by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association.