ANALYSIS of lunar farside soil samples collected by China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe has helped scientists discover that the mantle on the far side of the moon is cooler than that on the near side.
This discovery provides the petrological and geochemical evidence for a temperature contrast between the lunar nearside and farside mantles, supplying the critical dataset needed to elucidate the moon’s evolution.
The study was conducted by the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology, Peking University and Shandong University, and published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The moon is like a book recording the history of the solar system, said Li Ziying, chief scientist at the China National Nuclear Corporation, adding that the moon’s mantle is the “core chapter” of this book.
Beneath the lunar crust lies the mantle, which is the moon’s volumetrically dominant layer. The ancient volcanic activities on the moon were driven by the upwelling of materials from the lunar mantle. Thus, the interior structures of the moon, including the mantle, hold the decisive clues to its evolution.
The scientists analyzed the basalt samples and employed three independent thermobarometers to determine the temperature-pressure conditions under which the basalt crystallized. Basalt from the moon’s farside, collected by Chang’e-6 and dated to 2.8 billion years ago, reveals that their mantle potential temperature is about 100 degrees Celsius lower than that of the nearside basalt returned by the Chang’e-5 mission, according to the study.
Xinhua
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