A space odyssey

Facilitating understanding

She has only recently returned from a scientific expedition to Xinjiang in October with a team of students from the institute, and managed to recover more than 30 meteorites.

Yang is often invited to give lectures at local primary schools and companies in Guiyang.

"I want to help students learn more about the universe and hope that they get interested in exploring it," Yang says.

To date, China has recovered 12,665 meteorites from the Antarctic, following the United States and Japan in collections, says Chen Hongyi, vice-curator of the geological museum with the Guilin University of Technology in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

"Yang's work is very meaningful," says Chen.

Planetary science is in the process of becoming the first-class discipline across the country, while meteorites contain clues for the human race to better understand the moon, Mars and the rest of the solar system, and possibly find extraterrestrial life, Chen explains.

Those meteorites are the only material samples from the wider universe that humans can touch while on Earth, except for those acquired from space, Chen explains.

During the Apollo space program, which first put men on the moon, the US landed 12 astronauts over six flights between 1969 and 1972, bringing back 382 kilograms of rocks and soil.

The former Soviet Union deployed three successful robotic sample return missions in the 1970s. The last, Luna 24, retrieved 170.1 grams of samples in 1976 from Mare Crisium, or "Sea of Crises" on the moon.

China's Chang'e 5 probe, launched in late November, is currently on a mission to collect samples from the moon.

Speaking about Yang's work, Chen says she has played a very positive role in publicizing meteorite knowledge, especially among young people.

"Yang has donated a few meteorites to our museum, providing more samples for people to better learn about these rocks."

Chen says he knows dozens of meteorite hunters like Yang across the country.

"They feel a close bond with these rocks, and want more people to like meteorites, thus contributing to the development of a network for meteorite knowledge popularization."

Speaking about her future plan, Yang says she is looking forward to reaching more students with her meteorite knowledge and helping them to understand the universe, while taking care of her meteorite facility.