According to the BBC’s report, the rock and soil samples brought by the “Chang’i-5” rover, which was sent to the Moon in December 2020, were reported to be younger than expected.
Scientists announced that basalt rocks formed by lava flow collected from the Procellarum region on the Moon’s Earth-facing surface are 2 billion years old.
To explain the late volcanic activity, scientists say, there must be something in this part of the Moon that provides heat.
University of Manchester Dr. “Maybe the Moon wobbled back and forth in its orbit, the result of what we call tidal warming,” said Katherine Joy. said.
Joy stated that, as in the case of the Moon creating tidal waves on the Earth, the Earth’s gravitational force might have stretched and stretched the Moon, thus causing friction-induced melting.
Details of the study were published in the journal “Science”.
It was previously reported that rock samples collected by Apollo astronauts are over 3 billion years old.
The “Chang’i-5” spacecraft sent by China to collect rock and soil samples from the Moon returned to Earth on December 16, 2020.
The spacecraft, consisting of landing and take-off components, satellite and sample module, was launched from the Vinchang Space Center in Hainan province with a Long March 5-Y rocket on November 24, 2020.
Chang’i-5 became the first spacecraft to return samples from the Moon to Earth in more than 40 years, since the US’s Apollo missions in the 1970s and the Soviet Union’s Luna missions.
China, which landed its Chang’i-4 robotic vehicle on the dark side of the Moon in 2019, was the first country to achieve this.
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