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Samples brought back from U.S. and Soviet missions were more
than 2.9 billion years old. The samples acquired on China's
Chang'e-5 mission late last year - around 1.96 billion years old
- suggests volcanic activity persisted longer than previously
expected.
Last December, the uncrewed Chinese probe touched down on a
previously unvisited part of a massive lava plain, the Oceanus
Procellarum or "Oceans of Storms". About 1,731 grammes of lunar
samples were later retrieved and brought back to Earth.
One of the main objectives of Chang'e-5, named after the
mythical Chinese goddess of the moon, was to find out how long
the moon remained volcanically active.
"The Oceanus Procellarum region of the Moon is characterised by
high concentrations of potassium, thorium, and uranium, elements
that generate heat through long-lived radioactive decay and may
have sustained prolonged magmatic activity on the near side of
the Moon," wrote the article's authors, including Chinese
researchers.
The article said the heat source for the magmatic activity might
also be due to so-called "tidal heating", or heat generated by
the gravitational tug and pull of the Earth.
The Chang'e-5 mission made China the third country to have ever
retrieved lunar samples after the United States and the Soviet
Union, which 45 years ago launched the last successful mission
to acquire material from the moon.
China plans to launch the Chang'e-6 and Chang'e-7 lunar
missions, also uncrewed, in the next five years to explore the
south pole of the moon.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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