Chinese scientists confirmed that the moon's oldest and largest impact crater, the South Pole-Aitken basin, formed 4.25 billion years ago. The finding, based on lunar samples from China's Chang'e-6 mission, offers new insights into the moon's early evolution. It suggests the basin was created by an asteroid impact in the solar system's first few hundred million years. The Chang'e-6 mission provided the first direct dating of the basin. (CGTN)
China announced the cooperation plan for its future Chang'e-6 mission, offering to carry a total of 20 kg of solicited payloads. The orbiter and lander of the Chang'e-6 mission will each reserve 10 kg for payloads, which will be selected from both domestic colleges, universities, private enterprises and foreign scientific research institutions.
A lunar lander named for the Chinese goddess of the moon may have lessened the mystery of the far side of the moon. The fourth probe of Chang'E (CE-4) was the first mission to land on the far side of the moon, and it has collected new evidence from the largest crater in the solar system,clarifying how the moon may have evolved.
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