November 21, 2024
2 minimum read
First rocks returned from the far side of the moon reveal ancient volcanic activity
Samples from the far side of the moon collected by China’s Chang’e 6 mission document years of turbulent history on the moon
Researchers recovered lunar samples from the Chang’e 6 return capsule.
Xinhua News Agency/Jin Liwang/Alamy Stock Photo
Researchers have for the first time observed samples brought back from the far side of the moon. The rocks detail billions of years of volcanic history.
The results are the first scientific analysis of samples recovered by China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft, which scooped up about 2 kilograms of lunar soil and returned it to Earth in a capsule in June. An independent research team in China published another paper. science and nature November 15th.
“We can tell a story about the long history of volcanism and different mantle sources on the far side of the Moon,” said Qiu-Li Li, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and co-author of the paper. says. nature paper.
About supporting science journalism
If you enjoyed this article, please consider supporting our award-winning journalism. Currently subscribing. By subscribing, you help ensure future generations of influential stories about the discoveries and ideas that shape the world today.
leave dust on the data
Chang’e 6 was China’s second mission to land on the far side of the moon, following Chang’e 4 in 2019. Both landed in the Aitken Basin in Antarctica. This basin is one of the oldest and largest craters on the moon, formed after a meteorite. influenced about 4 billion years ago.
Lunar rocks collected from the far side of the moon reveal the history of volcanic activity.
As expected, the researchers found that the fine dust, which ranges in size from one micrometer to several hundred micrometers, contains a mixture of particles from different geological eras. Constant collisions between micrometeorites and high-energy solar particles can shatter rocks into dust, which can then travel unaffected by the atmosphere and land elsewhere, the paper’s co-authors said. Mr. Yi Gang Shu explains. science He is an author of the paper and a petrologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou.
By measuring isotopic abundances, Xu and his collaborators discovered that many of the dust particles came from lava that erupted to the Earth’s surface about 2.83 billion years ago. Other teams’ discoveries were largely similar, but the scientists also discovered lava grains that are 4.2 billion years old. These and other studies show that the Moon was actively volcanically active for billions of years before becoming the nearly stationary environment we see today.
This article is reprinted with permission. first published November 18, 2024.
