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Since January, the Chinese mission Chang-e-4 – an orbiter and a rover – is exploring the far side of the moon, especially the highly prized South Pole-Aitken Basin, a crater of impact. asteroids that extends over nearly a quarter of the Moon's surface. . It is the largest crater of the Moon, as well as the deepest and oldest. Scientists have long suspected Aitken to hold vital clues to the evolution of the Moon – and many other bodies in the solar system.
Now, the Yutu-2 robot from the Chang'e-4 mission, which still roams the Aitken Basin, has finally discovered the lunar dust which, according to the researchers, finds its origin deep under the mantle of the Moon, under the surface lighter. The meteor impacts on the already thin crust of the Aitken Basin may have dug out this material, which is very different from the surface rocks and regolith that most lunar missions have studied. And by examining these minerals, scientists say they now have a better idea of the formation and evolution of our Moon.
Minor meteors
The Moon formed early in the history of our solar system when the Earth crashed on a planet the size of Mars, called Theia. And like many great solar bodies, researchers believe that the moon was very young when it was covered with an ocean of magma. When the moon was cooled, the heavier materials sank toward the lunar core, while lighter materials floated upward, where they were preserved as the lunar surface we see today. hui. Between these is a middle layer called the mantle. And unlike the Earth, with its volcanoes, plate tectonics and deep ocean faults, the Moon has not changed its layers much. So, the only way to bring the heavier materials back to the surface is probably by meteor impacts that hit hard enough to break through the superficial layers up to the deeper mantle underneath – especially millions or billions years ago when this lower layer was still melting.
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