China discovers stunning crystal on the moon, nuclear fusion fuel for limitless energy

China found a crystal on the Moon made of a mineral that had never been seen before. They also confirmed that the surface of the Moon has a key ingredient for nuclear fusion, which is a possible source of power that uses the same forces that power the Sun and other stars.

China's Chang'e-5 mission landed on the Moon in 2020, collected about four pounds of rocks, and brought them back to Earth a few days later. The crystal is one of those rocks. 

After carefully sorting through the samples, which are the first Moon rocks brought back to Earth since 1976, scientists at the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology found a single crystal particle that was smaller than the width of a human hair.

The crystal is made of a new mineral called Changesite—Y. It was named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e, who also inspired China's series of lunar missions.

Changesite—(Y) is the first new mineral to be found on the Moon by China. It is the sixth new mineral to be found in Moon samples. Before China, only the United States and Russia could say they had found a new mineral on the Moon. It is a clear crystal that grew in a place on the northern near-face of the moon where there were volcanoes about 1.2 billion years ago.

China's state media say that the new lunar samples also contain helium-3, a form of the element helium that has long interested scientists and writers of science fiction because it could be used as a fuel source for nuclear fusion. This made-up type of power tries to use the energy released when atoms come together under a lot of pressure, like in the centre of a star.

Helium-3 is very hard to find on Earth, but there is a lot of it on the Moon. This difference has made people dream of mining the material on the Moon's surface.