lander before firing its own rocket
motor. CNSA chose this approach to
minimize the risk of damaging both the
lander and its precious cargo.
Once in orbit, the ascent module
reunited with the service module. After
transferring the lunar samples to the
enclosed Earth return module, the
ascent module was jettisoned and the
service module fired its rocket engines
to head back home, carrying the Earth
return module.
As the craft approached Earth,
the return module detached from
the service module and performed a
“skip” reentry, where it bounced off
the atmosphere once to slow itself
before deploying its parachute system
and touching down in China’s Inner
Mongolia region. Helicopter-borne
recovery crews using infrared cameras
quickly spotted the craft and swooped
in to retrieve the samples.
For now, the samples are being
prepared for analysis and storage
within a special Beijing laboratory. In a
CNSA press release, officials said they
hope to share some of the returned
lunar material with other nations to
“promote scientific research, encourage
more scientists at home and abroad to
participate, and strive to secure more
scientific achievements.” — DOUG ADLERCATALYTIC CONVERTER
Researchers have found the first
experimental evidence that the
Sun fuses some hydrogen by using
carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen as
catalysts. This “CNO cycle” makes
neutrinos as a byproduct, which
were detected by the underground
Borexino observatory in Italy.SHIELDS DOWN
Planets rich in uranium and
thorium may struggle to host life,
according to new research. Heat
from these radioactive elements in
a planet’s mantle may halt the
formation of a dynamo-driven
magnetic field like Earth’s, which
shields life from radiation.MORE LIKE GRAMMA RAYS
In 2017, astronomers spied a brief
flash in the most distant known
galaxy, GN-z11 — a suspected
gamma-ray burst (GRB), a powerful
stellar explosion. It would be the
oldest known GRB, dating to
420 million years after the Big Bang.LUNAR COMMONS
The Moon’s most valuable sites for
science and mining are clustered
in just a few regions, warn
researchers. Competition among
nations and corporations could
lead to overcrowding and threaten
cultural heritage locations like the
Apollo landing sites.DISTANTLY RELATED
The brown dwarf Oph 98 A has a
newfound binary companion — a
planet-sized object orbiting five
times farther from it than Pluto is
from our Sun. The pair’s low
masses and wide separation mean
they share the weakest
gravitational bond of any binary
system yet found.SPIDEY SENSE
In zero gravity, spiders use light to
stay oriented, suggests a study on
the International Space Station.
When their habitat lamps were off,
the spiders spun unusually
symmetric webs. But with lights
on, they built their webs towards
them, as if aiming for the Sun in
the sky. — MARK ZASTROWQUICK
TAKE S
9
A MOLTEN
RING
GALAXY
FORGED
Peering deep into space,
the Hubble Space Telescope
spotted a distorted galaxy
that looks like the subject
of a Salvador Dalí painting.
The Molten Ring Galaxy,
officially named GAL-CLUS-
022058s, is a terrific example
of an Einstein ring. Directly
between us and the Molten
Ring sits a galaxy cluster
whose gravity amplifies and
distorts light from GAL-
CLUS-022058s into the view
we see here. — HAILEY ROSE MCLAUGHLINBOUNCE-OFF. The ascent stage of Chang’e 5
lifts off from the lunar surface in this illustration.
A set of springs separated the ascent module
from the lander module before its engines
ignited. CNSA
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