The rock samples returned by China’s Chang’e-5 mission from the Moon in December were the youngest samples ever to be collected. The analysis of the basalt material showed that it was the solidified remnants of a lava flow, just two billion years old.
When compared to the samples brought back by several other missions from the Moon, this is the youngest ever lavas to be brought back to Earth. Samples brought by the Apollo astronaut missions were all aged over three billion years. The findings of Chang’e-5 mission were reported in the Science journal.
The mission was sent to a site on Oceanus Procellarum, the nearside of the Moon. The samples were carefully chosen with the knowledge available from the previous sample returns, which was conducted by the Soviet Union in 1976.
The dating analysis of Chang’e-5 was done by the scientists at the Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe (SHRIMP) Center in Beijing, led by Xiaochao Che. A broad international consortium worked along with Xiaochao Che and colleagues.
The fascinating data produced by the team concluded that volcanism continued on Earth’s natural satellite long after the time estimated by the scientists for such a small celestial body to have cooled down.
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