The lunar soil brought by the Chinese is seriously different from the soil previously brought by the USA and the USSR

After the analysis of the lunar soil delivered by the Chang'e mission was carried out, it turned out that it was seriously different from that brought earlier by the Americans and the Soviet lunar stations. In this material, you will learn what this difference is and how scientists are trying to explain it.

Lunar soil on Earth and its characteristics

Everyone knows that the "Apollo" landed six times and, through combined efforts, delivered 378 kilograms of lunar soil to Earth.

At the same time, the regolith was collected from different places. For example, the Fra Mauro crater (the Apollo 14 mission took place in 1971), according to scientists, was formed from solidified lava about 3.2 billion years ago. And in general, almost all the samples collected by the Americans date back to an approximate age of 3.8 billion years.

So some of the lunar soil was delivered by two Soviet lunar stations. Luna-16 back in 1970 brought 101 grams from the Sea of ​​Abundance. At the same time, the soil turned out to be a classic basalt rock, in other words, it is a consequence of volcanism.

And in 1976 already "Luna-24" delivered another 170 grams from the southeastern region of the Sea of ​​Crises.

After analyzing Soviet and American samples, scientists came to the conclusion that volcanic activity on the satellite ended about 2.9-2.8 billion years ago.

Now let's look at the soil delivered by the Chinese lunar rover "Chang'e". The samples were collected in December 2020 from the Ocean of Storms 130 km from Rümker Peak.

So this complex of shield volcanoes was considered 3.5 billion years old, but as it turned out, there is basalt much younger there.

As it turned out, the samples collected by "Chang'e" are only two billion years old. This is what amazed the scientists. After all, it turns out that the Moon has been hot for at least one billion years longer than previously thought.

Scientists have developed two of the most appropriate versions to explain this phenomenon. So, according to the first theory, it was in this area that the surface of the Moon was heated by thermonuclear reactions in the bowels of the satellite.

The Ocean of Storms is an area with a fairly high concentration of thorium, uranium and also the isotope potassium-40. Only in the soil "Chang'e" this abundance of elements is not observed.

According to the second version, the lunar surface was not allowed to cool down for such a long time by the gravitational attraction of the Earth or the so-called tidal forces.

Due to these movements of the satellite around the planet, it (the satellite) is slightly "wrinkled", and because of this, energy was released, which did not allow the satellite to cool down. And, most likely, the Moon two billion years ago was significantly closer (it is assumed that it is twice as close) than it is now.

But that is not all. Further analysis of the soil showed that 90% of the material is, so to speak, of "local origin", and the remaining 10% have a completely different "exotic" composition in comparison with the sea lunar basalts.

Scientists suggest that these "foreign" materials got here as a result of numerous collisions of the Moon with other cosmic bodies.

It turns out that, despite many years of studying our satellite with you, in fact we do not know anything about him and, it is likely that future planned missions to the moon (if, of course, they take place) will allow for high-profile discoveries.

Well, if you liked the current material, then do not forget to subscribe to the channel and thank you for your attention!