Carsten Münker from the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Cologne was one of seven research groups worldwide to be selected by the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) to receive lunar samples for research purposes. These were collected on the moon by the Chinese mission Chang'e-5 and brought back to earth. A total of 1731g of lunar material landed on Earth on 17 December 2020. After Chinese scientists began their analyses, they invited foreign teams to submit proposals in 2023 and received 24 submissions. The 7 winners from the USA (2), Great Britain, France, Japan, Pakistan and Germany were informed at the beginning of this year.

Carsten Münker, a cosmochemist at the University of Cologne who attended the ceremony in Shanghai, believes that applying his team's analytical expertise to the Chang'e-5 samples will shed light on how and when the lunar magma ocean, a layer of molten rock that is believed to have covered the surface of the moon shortly after its formation, crystallised. The Cologne team also hopes to be able to determine the age of the moon more precisely.

On 24 April, Carsten Münker and others signed the corresponding contracts during a formal ceremony in Shanghai and then received a few grams of lunar material a day later in Beijing.

Read more here and in the 1 May 2025 issue of Science (https://www.science.org/content/article/huge-honor-china-reveals-foreign-scientists-awarded-rare-lunar-samples).