Volcanoes on the Moon's Hidden Side Revealed by New Research

Volcanoes once erupted on the moon's far side, just like on the side we see, according to new research. Scientists examined dirt and rocks brought back by China's Chang'e-6 spacecraft from the moon's little-explored far side. They found pieces of volcanic rock dating back to 2. 8 billion years, with one even older at 4. 2 billion years. "Getting a sample from this area is really significant, " said Christopher Hamilton, a planetary volcano expert from the University of Arizona. Scientists already knew there were active volcanoes on the near side from around the same time. But until now, they had no physical samples from the far side. China's Chang'e-5 spacecraft returned moon rocks from the near side in 2020, the first since the Apollo missions. The Chang'e-4 spacecraft was the first to visit the far side in 2019. The far side of the moon is filled with craters and has fewer dark plains carved by lava flows compared to the near side. Why they're so different is still a mystery. The new findings show over 1 billion years of volcanic activity on the lunar far side. Future studies will help understand how this activity lasted so long. The research results were published in the journals Nature and Science.