China's Chang'e 6 probe returned to Earth on Tuesday with little-explored rock and soil samples from the far side of the moon, in a world premiere. The probe landed in northern China in the Inner Mongolia region.
Chinese scientists expect the returned samples to include 2.5 million-year-old volcanic rocks and other materials that will answer questions about the geographic differences between the two sides of the moon.
Although previous missions of the United States and the Soviet Union collected samples from the near side of the Moon, the Chinese mission was the first to collect samples from the far side, which is not visible from Earth and faces outer space.
The far side is also known to contain mountains and meteorite craters, which contrasts with the relatively flat areas visible on the near side.
The probe left Earth on May 3 and its journey took 53 days. The probe drilled into the core and collected rocks from the surface.
Zhongyu Yu, a geoscientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in a published statement that the samples are expected to answer “one of the fundamental scientific questions in lunar scientific research: What geological activity is responsible for the differences between the two sides?” in Innovation Mondaya journal published in partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In recent years, China has launched several successful missions to the Moon, after collecting samples from the near side of the Moon using the Chang'e 5 probe.
China also hopes that the probe will return material containing traces of meteorite impacts from the moon's past.
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