Fig. 3: Disturbance of the fine regolith by the rocket exhaust from the surface to around a depth of a centimetre during the descent.

a Schematic of the landing. The red solid line represents the topography of the landing area derived from the LCAM data. The light blue circles represent the subsurface fine regolith with low temperature and moderate water contents. The dark blue circles represent the surface fine regolith with high temperature and high-water contents. b,c, Single images captured by the Chang’e-6 LCAM at altitudes of ~7 m (b) and ~5 m (c) when approaching the landing site. The effect of the rocket exhaust on the surface surrounding the landing site can be seen. As the lander descended closer to the surface, the lower-reflectance zone became increasingly rougher, whereas the higher-reflectance zone became smoother. d, Double-layer water-content model for the surface and subsurface fine regolith before the disturbance by the exhaust plume.