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2h ago

Chang’e-6 Samples Reveal Cooler Mantle Beneath Moon’s Farside

Laboratory analyses indicate formation at roughly 1,100°C, suggesting a deficit of heat-producing elements below the farside crust.

© NASA
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Overview

  • The peer-reviewed results appear in Nature Geoscience on September 30, 2025, providing the first sample-based evidence of a deep interior hemispheric contrast.
  • China’s Chang’e-6 returned about 300 grams from the South Pole–Aitken Basin in 2024, marking the first-ever samples collected from the lunar farside.
  • Mineral thermometry finds the farside basalt crystallized about 100°C cooler than comparable nearside rocks, with satellite comparisons indicating a roughly 70°C parent-rock difference.
  • Researchers used electron-probe mineral mapping and ion-probe lead isotope dating, determining an age near 2.8 billion years for the analyzed basalt fragments.
  • The team interprets the cooler farside mantle as evidence of fewer KREEP-associated radionuclides, informing competing Moon-formation scenarios as follow-up work assesses whether the thermal imbalance persists today.