A space odyssey

Yang (first from right) and her teammates spend a night in a tent during an expedition to Xinjiang in November 2020. They found a total of 23 meteorites during the trip. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Giving off the vibe

Over the years, she has found more than 600 meteorites with a cumulative weight of 400 kilograms.

In 2017, Yang went back to her hometown Guiyang and opened the meteorite facility.

There she displays more than 300 of the meteorites she has found, along with accessories made from them.

A sand table demonstrating the scattered meteorite belt in Lop Nur stands in the center of the facility.

"I tried to re-create the scene and the environment to enable more people to understand and like meteorites," Yang says. "I've met visitors from different parts of the country, and I shared my stories of each of the meteorites and major scientific information behind them. Visitors showed much interest."

Access to the facility is free and Yang says she makes an income from selling accessories related to, or made from, the meteorites.

It has evolved into an educational facility for meteorite culture and science over the years and is now an internship site for postgraduate students from the Institute of Geochemistry, the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"It's delightful to attract astronomy enthusiasts and the general public to experience the mystery of the universe at close quarters," Yang says.

She has also become an outdoor tutor for students from the Center for Lunar and Planetary Sciences at the Institute of Geochemistry and helps arrange field trips for students to expand their knowledge beyond the textbook.