Chronology, Local Stratigraphy, and Foreign Ejecta Materials at the Chang'e‐6 Landing Site: Constraints on the Provenance of Samples Returned From the Moon's Farside

Abstract

Abstract China's Chang'e‐6 (CE‐6) mission has returned the first‐ever lunar farside samples from a mare plain on the southern Apollo basin floor. The crater statistics of the CE‐6 mare unit and the provenance of the samples are crucial in interpreting the CE‐6 sample analysis results and re‐calibrating the crater chronology function. Here, we conduct a thorough survey of the formation sequence and main source craters of ejecta materials at the sampling area. Our results show that the sampling mare unit has a model age of ∼2.8 Ga and the CE‐6 scooped and drilled samples mainly come from the proximal ejecta of nearby small craters and the local regolith. The total abundance of foreign (non‐mare) materials, primarily from Chaffee S and Vavilov craters, is ∼9.3%. The Chaffee S ejecta may contain lunar upper mantle materials previously excavated by the South Pole‐Aitken impact, which will shed light on the materials of the Moon's interior.

Keywords

• Moon
• CE‐6 samples
• composition
• crater dating
• ejecta
• regolith