00:04While most eyes might be on Mars or in deep space with the James Webb Space Telescope,
00:08China is still analyzing the lunar samples brought back as part of its unmanned Chang'e 5 mission.
00:13And recently they made an incredible discovery, volcanic basalt,
00:17produced when the moon was more than just a dead rock in space.
00:19The find was among the just under four pounds of lunar regolith that was brought back by the rover.
00:24The China National Space Administration was looking specifically at an area with material
00:27known to be much younger than other areas visited.
00:30Capturing and returning to Earth with regolith from just 2 billion years ago.
00:33Researchers believe the basalt that was found is from a period when the moon was still volcanically active,
00:38brought up from underneath the crust.
00:39But the researchers note it's really difficult to know where anything on the moon originated,
00:43as asteroid impacts are known to toss materials all over its surface.
00:47And despite the discovery of volcanic basalt for the first time ever on our planet's only natural satellite,
00:52the rest of the material was less exciting it seems.
00:54Experts expected around 10-20% of the material would be exotic in nature.
00:59However, final analysis has determined that only 0.2% of the lunar material brought back
01:04included any rare materials.
