Samples Obtained By Chinese Spacecraft Show Moon's Ancient Volcanism (yahoo.com) 10
China's Chang'e-6 mission made history by retrieving the first surface samples from the moon's far side, revealing evidence of volcanic activity spanning 1.4 billion years. Reuters reports: Researchers said on Friday the soil brought back from the Chang'e-6 landing site contained fragments of volcanic rock - basalt - dating to 4.2 billion years ago and to 2.8 billion years ago. This points to a long period of volcanic activity - at least 1.4 billion years - on the far side during the first half of the moon's history, when it was a more dynamic world than it is today. The moon, like Earth, formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Volcanism on the moon, Earth and other planetary bodies involves the eruption of molten rock from the mantle - the layer just under the outer crust - onto the surface. The landing site in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, an impact crater, is an area with the thinnest crust on the moon, helpful for finding evidence of volcanism.
The samples contained various volcanic rock fragments, and the researchers used a method called radioisotope dating to determine their age. Lunar basalt samples previously were obtained from the moon's near side, which perpetually faces Earth, during U.S. Apollo, Soviet Luna and Chinese Chang'e-5 missions. These showed that volcanism on the near side had occurred as long ago as 4.0 billion years ago and continued for at least two billion years, Li said. "The exact timing and duration of lunar volcanism is elusive and maybe varied across different regions. Some small-scale volcanism may have also occurred on the near side as late as about 120 million years ago as recorded by volcanic glass beads from Chang'e-5 samples" collected in 2020, Li said.
The new study also found that the basalt dating to 4.2 billion years ago differed in composition from the basalt dating to 2.8 billion years ago, meaning they originated from different sources of molten rock - magma - in the mantle, Li said. The Chang'e-6 samples, Li said, also differ in composition compared with previously collected lunar samples from the near side.
The samples contained various volcanic rock fragments, and the researchers used a method called radioisotope dating to determine their age. Lunar basalt samples previously were obtained from the moon's near side, which perpetually faces Earth, during U.S. Apollo, Soviet Luna and Chinese Chang'e-5 missions. These showed that volcanism on the near side had occurred as long ago as 4.0 billion years ago and continued for at least two billion years, Li said. "The exact timing and duration of lunar volcanism is elusive and maybe varied across different regions. Some small-scale volcanism may have also occurred on the near side as late as about 120 million years ago as recorded by volcanic glass beads from Chang'e-5 samples" collected in 2020, Li said.
The new study also found that the basalt dating to 4.2 billion years ago differed in composition from the basalt dating to 2.8 billion years ago, meaning they originated from different sources of molten rock - magma - in the mantle, Li said. The Chang'e-6 samples, Li said, also differ in composition compared with previously collected lunar samples from the near side.
Let's start mining already (Score:3)
Who knows what rare materials will be discovered if we finally start mining.
Re: Let's start mining already (Score:1)
Lol it's the same periodic table of the elements there as here. You seem to be living in some 1960s space fantasy, unconcerned about reality. Quite endearing and charming, if you're twelve.
Re: (Score:2)
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Lol it's the same periodic table of the elements there as here. You seem to be living in some 1960s space fantasy, unconcerned about reality. Quite endearing and charming, if you're twelve.
What did that periodic table look like, when you were twelve?
I rest my case. Don’t do that.
Re: Let's start mining already (Score:1)
Was that supposed to mean something?
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Was that supposed to mean something?
I think it meant that materials do not equal elements. The periodic table lists elements, materials might be aerogels, or other mixtures of various elements.
I too am interested in what materials might be found there, I'ma gonna go out on a limb, and say these materials are going to be made up of elements in our good old periodic table.
Maybe you were having a bad day when you snarked at oblom.
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Who knows what rare materials will be discovered if we finally start mining.
We struggle mining material on this planet, because “cost”.
What application of any material can you think of that justifies it, other than building a warp drive for the Enterprise that doesn’t exist?
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If humans are going to colonize the rest of the universe we need to start at the moon. Even if you think that space habitats are the way to go (my own opinion as well) you still need to start on the moon to extract the building materials (radiation shielding especially) since lifting that much mass out of Earth's gravity well has a whole slew of issues.
If you think that humans shouldn't expand off-planet then you're content for us to go the way of the Neanderthal and just die out. We may be the only plane
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Nope, no sign that they had pointed ears...