Produced by: Tarun Mishra Designed by: Manoj Kumar
China’s Chang’e-6 mission has provided the first-ever soil samples from the Moon’s far side. Scientists analyzing the material confirmed volcanic activity occurred on the far side billions of years ago, with fragments dating back 2.8 to 4.2 billion years.
Christopher Hamilton, a planetary volcano expert at the University of Arizona, emphasized the importance of these samples, which fill a data gap for a region of the Moon largely unexplored.
Previous research established volcanic activity on the Moon’s near side, visible from Earth, during a similar timeframe. These new findings confirm volcanic history on the less-explored far side, which has fewer lava plains and more craters.
Representative Pic
Data from earlier missions, including NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, suggested a volcanic past on the far side. This is the first physical evidence to validate those findings.
Credit : NASA
The Chang’e-6 spacecraft builds on China’s lunar exploration program, which includes Chang’e-4, the first mission to land on the Moon’s far side in 2019, and Chang’e-5, which returned samples from the near side in 2020.
The Moon’s far side has a starkly different topography from the near side, with its cratered surface contrasting with the flat plains formed by lava flows on the near side. Scientists continue to investigate the cause of this difference.
The results of the study were published in the journals Nature and Science, marking a milestone in understanding the Moon’s geological history and its billion-year-long volcanic activity.
These findings shed light on the Moon’s evolution and offer clues to its volcanic processes, enriching knowledge crucial for future lunar exploration missions.