The Application of Mössbauer Spectroscopy in Mineral Chemistry in Light of the Recent Achievements of the Chang'e-5 Mission

The minerals that form lunar rocks have unequal expansion coefficients, and when the temperature varies from 450 K in sunlight to 100 K in its absence, then a temperature difference of 350 degrees causes mechanical stresses that destroy the rocks that make up the surface of the lunar crust. Constant expansion and contraction caused the destruction of brittle crystals and fragile glasses over billions of years. This, combined with meteorite bombardment, led to the formation of unusual powdery crystalline-glass composite materials that form lunar regolith. Other factors to mention include the impact of intense solar wind radiation, profound electrostatic charging of particles and rocks composed of insulating minerals, gravitational influences from the Moon and lunar seismic activities, along with chemical processes associated with the loss of volatile mineral components. Using conventional radioactive sources, Mössbauer spectroscopy typically identified in regolith the phases of olivine, pyroxene, lunar glass, magnetic α iron, and superparamagnetic iron resulting from the solar wind reduction. In addition, as the photons sources we were able to use in recent years for Mössbauer spectroscopy research the large-scale synchrotron radiation (SR) facilities built to generate the γ- radiation beams and equipped with special γ-resonance beamlines for the Mössbauer spectroscopy studies.