BEIJING, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's science news from the past week:

MOON SAMPLING MISSION

China's Chang'e-5 probe, comprising an orbiter, a lander, an ascender, and a returner, was launched on Nov. 24, and its lander-ascender combination touched down on the north of the Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon on Dec. 1.

The spacecraft finished its sampling work at 10 p.m. on Dec. 2. The samples were stowed in a container inside the ascender of the probe as planned.

After the samples were collected and sealed, the ascender of Chang'e-5 carrying the country's first lunar samples blasted off from the lunar surface late Thursday, representing the first-ever Chinese spacecraft to take off from an extraterrestrial body.

ARTIFICIAL SUN

The HL-2M Tokamak, China's new-generation "artificial sun," went into operation on Friday and has achieved its first plasma discharge, according to the China National Nuclear Corporation.

Designed to replicate the natural reactions that occur in the sun using hydrogen and deuterium gases as fuels, the apparatus in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, will provide clean energy through controlled nuclear fusion.

QUANTUM COMPUTER

A research team including renowned Chinese quantum physicist Pan Jianwei announced Friday a significant computing breakthrough, achieving quantum computational advantage.

The team established a quantum computer prototype, named "Jiuzhang," via which up to 76 photons were detected. The study was published in Science magazine online.

This achievement marks that China has reached the first milestone on the path to full-scale quantum computing -- a quantum computational advantage, also known as "quantum supremacy," which indicates an overwhelming quantum computational speedup. Enditem

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