The first lunar rocks brought back to Earth in more than 40 years reveal the moon was volcanically active later in its history than scientists previously thought.
An international consortium of scientists, led by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, examined samples from the moon that were collected by, which landed on the moon in late 2020 and gathered more than 4 pounds of materials from the lunar surface. The researchers found that the moon rocks are around 2 billion years old and are the remnants of an ancient lava flow.
"The general assumption was that the moon is such a small body compared to Earth and Mars, for example, so it cooled off more quickly and stopped producing volcanics," he said. Scientists use a technique known as"crater counting" to estimate the age of planetary surfaces. Researchers can gauge the chronology of craters based on the known ages of samples from the Apollo moon missions.
"That left us scratching our heads," he said."How could volcanism have persisted for that long on the moon when we thought it cooled quickly?"
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Lunar rocks from Chinese probe offer glimpse of moon's volcanic historyThe moon was volcanically active later in its history than scientists previously thought, the first lunar rocks brought back to Earth in more than 40 years.
Read more »
New lunar samples reveal more recent volcanic activity on the moonLunar rocks collected by the Chinese Chang'e-5 mission have been dated to about 2 billion years old, filling a critical chronology gap in the moon's history. The rocks also show that volcanic activity on the moon was occuring more recently than previously thought.
Read more »
For The First Time In History, A Korean Band Charts The No. 1 Rock Song In AmericaTypically known for producing K-pop hits, BTS claim the No. 1 spot on the top 10 rock chart this week.
Read more »
Laura Whitmore gives a glimpse of baby daughter wearing knitted hat in rare snapLove Island presenter Laura Whitmore showed off their growing daughter in a rare snap on Instagram - and followers were in awe
Read more »
Rage Against the Machine Returned Their Fee From First-Ever Coachella -- Here's WhyTom Morello revealed in a new interview that Rage Against the Machine returned the fee they received for playing the inaugural Coachella festival in 1999, but it wasn’t for anti-capitalist reasons.
Read more »