The probe landed in northern China on Tuesday.
A Chinese lunar probe has returned to Earth with the first samples in the history of space exploration of the far side of the Moon. The probe Chang’e 6 It returned on Tuesday with rock and soil samples and landed in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China.
Chinese scientists hope the returned samples will include volcanic rocks and other materials from 2.5 million years old.
Are there geographical differences on both sides?
While the Previous American and Soviet missions had collected samples of the visible side of the Moon, the Chinese mission is the first to have taken samples from the far side.
They hope this can answer questions about geographic differences on the two sides of the Moon. The close face is the one seen from Earth, while the distant face It is oriented towards outer space.
It is also known that the hidden face presents mountains and impact craterswhich contrasts with the extensions relatively flat visible on the hidden side.
Fundamental issues
At the monthly probe left Earth on May 3 y His journey lasted 53 days. She has pierced the core and collected rocks from the surface.
The samples are expected to “answer one of the most fundamental scientific questions in lunar scientific research: What geological activity is responsible for the differences between the two faces?“, he claimed Zongyu Yuegeologist of the Chinese Academy of Sciencesin a statement published in the magazine ‘Innovation Monday‘, published in collaboration with the academy.
China China managed to land on the moon on the far side of the moon for the first time in history in 2019. In recent years, China has successfully launched multiple missions to the Moon, collecting previously samples of the visible side of the Moon with the probe Chang’e 5.
They also hope that the probe may have collected material that could contain traces of meteorite impacts of the lunar past.
