Ancient rock from 4,200,000,000 years ago stuns scientists and answers one of the biggest questions about the Moon
Space is so significant that there's always going to be new discoveries, but this recent find from billions of years ago has confirmed a long-held theory about the Moon.
It's been a long time since astronauts have set foot on the Moon - due to a particularly frustrating reason - but that hasn't stopped space departments like NASA from exploring its surface with various robotic crafts.
Researchers have managed to send wooden satellites into space in order to find more sustainable ways to explore space, and India have made a rover that could help us uncover and understand the Moon's past.
However, one recent discovery by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has uncovered rocks on the dark side of the moon that not only verify a widely held suspicion, but also could be up to 4.2 billion years old.
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Discovered by the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, fragments of volcanic rock indicate that volcanoes have indeed erupted in the far side of the Moon, which was previously thought to be undiscoverable.
These rocks range from being 2.8 to 4.2 billion years old, and serve as a vital discovery in the Moon's history that illuminates many prior theories.
Data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, among other studies, indicated that the far side of the moon had a history of volcanoes and eruptions, but the retrieval of these rocks is the first actual confirmation.
This isn't the first time that researchers have reached the dark side of the Moon, as previous Chinese spacecrafts Chang'e-4 and Chang'e-5 managed to take survey of the area, with the latter returning rocks from the northern near-side.
The sample collected by Chang'e-6 also contains materials that begin to help illuminate the stark differences between the near and far sides of the Moon, which remain largely a mystery.
Information surrounding the discovery was published in scientific journals Nature and Science, in which co-author Qiu-Li Li stated, as reported by MSN, that this indicates over one billion years of volcanic eruptions on the Moon's far side.
It remains a further point of research as to how these eruptions lasted so long, and whether this can be indicated by the current samples or whether further expeditions are required is also unknown.
It's clear that this is just the start of an exciting time when it comes to the far side of the moon, which has up to now remained largely unknown, and hopefully further research can continue to illuminate the mystery location.