ejecta

But then sometime between day 200 and 1000 the ejecta must have clashed with the hollow ring of star stuff, causing it to light up again.

“They are able to show that ejecta from a crater the size of the Giordano Bruno … could survive for a long enough timescale in a co-orbital zone around Earth.”

If the researchers are right, and Tianwen-2 brings some of the asteroid back to Earth, it would be the first time scientists would be able to study a piece of lunar ejecta, Cheng says.

“If a piece of Moon ejecta is linked to a particular crater, that’s very exciting.”

But then sometime between day 200 and 1000 the ejecta must have clashed with the hollow ring of star stuff, causing it to light up again.