新的原子研究是首次对月球样本进行研究

新的原子研究是首次对月球样本进行研究

Lunar samples collected by Apollo missions are a precious thing, with some specifically kept sealed for future studies – or at least until we can go back to the moon to collect some more. Now researchers have used a new technique to get as much data as possible from a single grain.

阿波罗任务收集到的月球样本是一件珍贵的东西，其中一些是专门为未来的研究而保存的——或者至少在我们可以回到月球收集更多样本之前。现在研究人员使用一种新技术从一粒谷物中获取尽可能多的数据。

As reported in Meteoritics & Planetary Science, researchers at the Field Museum in Chicago used atom probe tomography (APT), a technique that's usually used by material scientists to look at how to improve industrial processes that make steel and nanowires. The method allowed the team to carve out a small grain of moondust just a few hundred atoms wide from the sample. They then used a laser to bump off atoms one by one in order to analyze the sample's composition and the origin of the atoms.

据《陨星学与行星科学》杂志报道，芝加哥菲尔德博物馆的研究人员使用了原子探测器断层扫描(APT)技术，这种技术通常被材料科学家用来研究如何改进制造钢铁和纳米线的工业过程。这种方法使研究小组能够从样本中分离出一小粒月球尘埃，距离样本只有几百个原子。然后他们用激光一个一个地撞击原子，以分析样品的组成和原子的来源。

Alfredo Carpineti

“We're analyzing rocks from space, atom by atom,” first author Jennika Greer, a graduate researcher at the Field Museum and the University of Chicago, said in a statement. “It's the first time a lunar sample has been studied like this. We're using a technique many geologists haven't even heard of.”

“我们正在一个原子一个原子地分析来自太空的岩石，”第一作者詹妮卡·格里尔在一份声明中说，她是菲尔德博物馆和芝加哥大学的研究生研究员。“这是首次对月球样本进行这样的研究。我们正在使用一种许多地质学家甚至从未听说过的技术。”

The technique allows the researchers to compare the commonalities and differences between the weathered surface soil and the unexposed lunar regolith. No other method can recreate the atomic composition of a sample in three dimensions and still be used for future studies. This allowed them to identify products of space weathering, including water, helium, and iron. Knowing the amount of these resources could help researchers plan for a future permanent base on the Moon.

这项技术使研究人员能够比较风化的表层土壤和未暴露的月球风化层之间的共性和差异。没有其他的方法可以在三维中重建样品的原子组成，并且仍然用于未来的研究。这使他们能够识别太空风化的产物，包括水、氦和铁。了解这些资源的数量可以帮助研究人员规划未来在月球上的永久基地。

"We can apply this technique to samples no one has studied," co-author professor Philipp Heck added. "You're almost guaranteed to find something new or unexpected. This technique has such high sensitivity and resolution, you find things you wouldn't find otherwise and only use up a small bit of the sample."

“我们可以把这项技术应用到没有人研究过的样本上，”合著者菲利普·赫克教授补充道。“你几乎肯定会发现一些新的或意想不到的东西。这种技术有很高的灵敏度和分辨率，你可以找到你在其他地方找不到的东西，而且只需要用掉一小部分样本。”

But it is not just lunar soil. Over the next few years, two missions will bring back pristine samples from asteroids, including the first subsurface sample.

但这不仅仅是月球土壤。在接下来的几年里，将有两项任务从小行星带回原始样本，包括第一个地下样本。

"It's great for comprehensively characterizing small volumes of precious samples," Greer said. "We have these really exciting missions like Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx returning to Earth soon – uncrewed spacecraft collecting tiny pieces of asteroids. This is a technique that should definitely be applied to what they bring back because it uses so little material but provides so much information."

格里尔说:“这对全面鉴定少量珍贵样本非常有用。”“我们有这些非常激动人心的任务，比如隼鸟2号和奥西里斯-雷克斯号很快返回地球，无人驾驶的宇宙飞船收集小行星的微小碎片。这种技术肯定应该应用到他们带回的东西上，因为它用的材料很少，但提供的信息却很多。”

NASA has provided funds to the Field Museum for three more years of lunar sample analysis using APT to work out the water content and the space weathering of several different Apollo samples.

美国国家航空航天局为菲尔德博物馆提供了资金，用于三年多的月球样本分析，利用APT计算出不同的阿波罗样本的含水量和太空风化率。