China's Chang'E-3 (CE-3) spacecraft touched down on the northern Mare Imbrium of the lunar nearside (340.49°E, 44.12°N), a region not directly sampled before. We report preliminary results with data from the CE-3 lander descent camera and from the Yutu rover's camera and penetrating radar. After the landing at a young 450-meter crater rim, the Yutu rover drove 114 meters on the ejecta blanket and photographed the rough surface and the excavated boulders. The boulder contains a substantial amount of crystals, which are most likely plagioclase and/or other mafic silicate mineral aggregates similar to terrestrial dolerite. The Lunar Penetrating Radar detection and integrated geological interpretation have identified more than nine subsurface layers, suggesting that this region has experienced complex geological processes since the Imbrian and is compositionally distinct from the Apollo and Luna landing sites.

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Context. Visible and near-infrared spectra of asteroids are known to be susceptible to nanophase irons produced by space weathering processes, thus making mineral identifications difficult. Mid-infrared spectroscopy may retain more mineral features owing to its lattice vibrational nature. Aims. We investigate the structure and reflectance spectral feature changes of olivine grains before and after simulated space weathering. Methods. We irradiate olivine grains by using pulsed laser to simulate varying degrees of micrometeorite bombardments. Reflectance measurements from 0.5 to 25 µm and radiative transfer calculations were carried out in order to compare them with each other. Results. Both the experimental simulations and modeling results indicate that the mid-infrared spectral features of olivine grains can survive the intense irradiations. Although the Christansen Feature is slightly shifted to longer wavelength, major vibrational bands remain essentially unchanged, because the lattice structure is quite immune to even the strongest irradiations, as revealed by both the X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering measurements. Conclusions. Mid-infrared spectroscopy is much more immune to productions of nanophase irons and amorphous materials and thus may be used more reliably in remote detections of minerals on asteroid surfaces.