'Volcanic glasses on the Moon occur as quenched skin of basaltic rocks or as glass spherules in pyroclastic deposits.' 'Glass is ubiquitous in lunar regolith, and volcanism and hypervelocity impacts are the major mechanisms of forming lunar glasses,' the team say. 'The globules were formed or exposed recently as evidenced by their intact shapes and surface exposure.'Įxact composition of the glass is yet to be determined, however. 'Transparent and translucent glasses on the Moon are less than 1 mm in diameters, and larger ones are dark and opaque,' they say. The new findings have been described in a paper authored by a team led by planetary geologist Zhiyong Xiao of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
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