Rock from 4,200,000,000 years ago confirms something we wondered about the moon

<img data-document-id="cms/api/amp/image/AA1udcb9" data-reference="image" src="https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1udcb9.jpg"/> <p> <strong> Volcanoes erupted on the mysterious far side of the moon billions of years ago, new research confirms. </strong> </p> <p> Scientists analysed lunar soil brought back to Earth from China ’s Chang’e-6 spacecraft, the first to return with a haul of rocks and dirt from the little-explored far side. </p> <p> Two separate teams found fragments of volcanic rock that were about 2.8 billion years old. One piece was even more ancient, dating back to 4.2 billion years. </p> <p> ‘To obtain a sample from this area is really important because it’s an area that otherwise we have no data for,’ said Christopher Hamilton, a planetary volcano expert at the University of Arizona. </p> <p> Scientists know there were active volcanoes on the near side, the part of the moon seen from Earth, dating back to a similar time frame. </p> <p> Previous studies, including data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, suggested the far side might also have a volcanic past. </p> <img data-document-id="cms/api/amp/image/AA1ud9M4" data-reference="image" src="https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1ud9M4.jpg"/> <p> The first samples from that region facing away from Earth confirm an active history. The results were published Friday in the journals Nature and Science. </p> <p> China has launched several spacecraft to the moon. </p> <p> In 2020, the Chang’e-5 spacecraft returned moon rocks from the near side, the first since those collected by NASA’s Apollo astronauts and Soviet Union spacecraft in the 1970s. </p> <p> The Chang’e-4 spacecraft became the first to visit the moon’s far side in 2019. </p> <img data-document-id="cms/api/amp/image/AA1ue7gF" data-reference="image" src="https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1ue7gF.jpg"/> <p> The moon’s far side is pockmarked by craters and has fewer of the near side’s flat, dark plains carved by lava flows. </p> <p> Why the two halves are so different remains a mystery, said study co-author Qiu-Li Li from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. </p> <p> Li said the new findings reveal over one billion years of volcanic eruptions on the lunar far side. </p> <p> Future research will determine how the activity lasted so long. </p> <p class=""> <strong> <strong> <strong> Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@.co.uk . </strong> </strong> </strong> </p> <p class=""> <strong> For more stories like this, </strong> <strong> check our news page </strong> . </p> <p> Get your need-to-know latest news, feel-good stories, analysis and more by signing up to 's News Updates newsletter </p>

Rock from 4,200,000,000 years ago confirms something we wondered about the moon

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Volcanoes erupted on the mysterious far side of the moon billions of years ago, new research confirms. Scientists analysed lunar soil brought back to Earth from China ’s Chang’e-6 spacec…

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