Scientists find a hot spot on the far side of the moon

Top Shot – The crescent moon is seen in Panama City on March 2, 2023 (Photo by Luis Acosta/AFP)

Readouts from the Chinese spacecraft point to a large slab of granite that solidified from magma in the satellite’s geological channels.

Rocks under an ancient volcano The dark side of the moon Scientists have revealed that the temperature stays surprisingly warm using data from Chinese spacecraft in orbit.

The data points to a large slab of granite that solidified from magma in geological channels below what is known as the Compton-Belkovitch Volcanic Complex.

“I would say we confirm that this is indeed a volcanic element,” said Matthew Siegler, a scientist at the Planetary Science Institute based in Tucson, Arizona, who led the research. “But the interesting thing is that it is a volcanic element similar to Earth.”

Published earlier this month in the journal Nature, the findings help explain what happened a long time ago under a strange part of Earth moon. The study also highlights the scientific potential of the data collected by the Chinese space program and how researchers can we Necessary to overcome obstacles to the use of this data.

For this study, Siegler and colleagues analyzed data from microwave instruments on Chang’e-1, launched in 2007, and Chang’e-2, launched in 2010, two Chinese spacecraft that are no longer in operation. As Congress currently prohibits any direct cooperation between NASA and the China Because the research was funded by NASA, Siegler was unable to work with the scientists and engineers who collected the data.

“It was a limitation. We can’t just call up the engineers who built the instrument in China and ask, “Hey, how should we interpret this data?” It would have been nice if we had been working on this with Chinese scientists all along. But this is not allowed. Fortunately, the Chinese have opened some of their databases to the public.”

Siegler was able to draw on the expertise of a Chinese scholar, Jianqing Feng, whom he had met at a conference. Feng was working on the Lunar Exploration Project at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“I realized that combining lunar exploration data from different countries would deepen our understanding of lunar geology and make exciting discoveries possible,” Feng said in an email. “So I left my job in China, moved to the United States and joined the Planetary Science Institute.”

Read more: Folha de S. Paolo