(Press-News.org)
The Moon's near and far sides exhibit striking asymmetry—from topography and crustal thickness to volcanic activity—yet the origins of these differences long puzzled scientists. China's Chang'e-6 mission, launched on May 3, 2024, changed this by returning 1,935.3 grams of material from the lunar farside's South Pole–Aitken Basin (SPA), the Moon's largest, deepest, and oldest known impact structure, measuring 2,500 kilometers in diameter. The samples arrived on Earth on June 25, 2024.
Previous studies indicated that the SPA was formed by a colossal impact approximately 4.25 billion years ago, releasing energy greater than that of a trillion atomic bombs. But the effect of this impact on lunar geology and thermal evolution was one of planetary science's greatest unsolved questions until recently.
In the past year, research teams led by CAS institutions including the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGG) and the National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC), along with Nanjing University and others, have made four landmark discoveries based on the SPA samples. Their findings were published in four cover articles in the journal Nature.
According to Prof. WU Fuyuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at IGG, the profound geological consequences of the impact that formed the SPA are, for the first time, revealed collectively in these four Nature papers.
The cover stories focus on the following areas:
Prolonged Volcanic Activity: Analysis identified two distinct volcanic phases on the lunar farside—4.2 billion and 2.8 billion years ago—indicating that volcanic activity persisted for at least 1.4 billion years, far longer than previously thought.
Fluctuating Magnetic Field: Measurements of paleomagnetic intensities in basalt clasts revealed a rebound in the Moon's magnetic field 2.8 billion years ago, suggesting that the lunar dynamo, which generates magnetic fields, fluctuated episodically rather than fading steadily.
Asymmetric Water Distribution: The farside mantle was found to have significantly lower water content than the nearside mantle, indicating that volatile elements are unevenly distributed within the lunar interior—adding another aspect to the Moon's asymmetry.
Mantle Depletion Signatures: Geochemical analysis of basalt points to an "ultra-depleted" mantle source, likely resulting from either a primordial depleted mantle or massive melt extraction triggered by large impacts. This highlights the role of major impacts in shaping the Moon's deep interior.
The first analysis of the samples was published by NAOC and its collaborators, detailing the samples' physical, mineralogical, and geochemical properties. The Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry at CAS subsequently confirmed 2.8-billion-year-old farside volcanic activity, linking it to a highly depleted mantle. IGG, in turn, dated the SPA to 4.25 billion years ago, providing a critical reference point for studying early Solar System impacts.
These findings not only illuminate the evolution of the Moon's farside but also underscore the transformative impact of the Chang'e-6 mission, paving the way for deeper insights into planetary formation and evolution.
END
In International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, a new laser machining method that dynamically adapts its beam shape is proposed to fabricate microgrooves with complex, highly precise cross-sections—some with a root mean square error decreased to less than 0.5 μm when processing microgrooves with a width of 10 μm.
The technique, developed by researchers at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, China, could advance the production of microfluidic devices, sensors, and heat dissipation systems by allowing for rapid and scalable manufacturing of custom microstructures.
Laser micromachining has long been constrained by the fundamental ...
“By synthesizing current insights on both RTK and non-RTK mediated resistance against anti-EGFR therapies, this review aims to guide future research and improve therapeutic strategies for these cancers.”
BUFFALO, NY – July 9, 2025 – A new review was published in Volume 16 of Oncotarget on June 25, 2025, titled “Challenges and resistance mechanisms to EGFR targeted therapies in head and neck cancers and breast cancer: Insights into RTK dependent and independent mechanisms.”
Researchers from the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati ...
(Toronto, July 9, 2025) JMIR Publications invites submissions to a new theme issue titled “Ambient AI Scribes and AI-Driven Documentation Technologies” in its open access journal JMIR Medical Informatics. The premier, peer-reviewed journal is indexed in MEDLINE, PubMed, PubMed Central, DOAJ, Scopus, and the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE).
Recent developments in generative artificial intelligence (AI) offer a promising pathway for reducing long-standing administrative burdens for physicians and clinicians. Specifically, there is a rapidly evolving field of ambient AI ...
Background and Aims
Acute hepatitis E (AHE) in the elderly can lead to severe complications including liver failure and mortality, yet the epidemiological landscape remains poorly characterized. This study aimed to assess the burden, trends, and health inequalities of AHE among the elderly over the past three decades, and to further predict its changes by 2030.
Methods
Data on AHE in the elderly were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease 2021. The burden of AHE was analyzed by trends, decomposition, cross-country inequalities, and predictive analysis.
Results
In 2021, the global incidence and Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) for AHE among the elderly ...
A research team led by Dr. Kee Young Koo from the Hydrogen Research Department at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (President: Yi Chang-Keun, hereafter referred to as KIER) has developed a novel and more cost-effective method for synthesizing ammonia decomposition catalysts. This new approach enables more efficient hydrogen production from ammonia and is expected to make a significant contribution to the realization of a hydrogen economy.
Composed of three hydrogen atoms and one nitrogen atom, ammonia has a high hydrogen content, ...
Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) are important coral ecosystems found between 30 and 150 meters deep in oceans worldwide including the Gulf of America. They support diverse marine life and important fisheries but remain poorly understood. Unlike shallow reefs, MCEs depend on nutrients from the deep ocean from upwelling or river plumes, like those from the Mississippi and Apalachicola rivers. These nutrient flows support growth of marine phytoplankton (i.e. tiny floating algae), which is an important source of organic matter (food) that sustains the corals and other marine species.
However, scientists have ...
PULLMAN, Wash. -- Groundwater is declining across Eastern Washington’s complex, interconnected aquifer system, as people draw on it for irrigation, drinking and other uses at a pace that threatens its sustainability, according to a new study by a Washington State University researcher.
In certain “hot spots” – such as the Odessa region and the Yakima Basin – the rates of decline are particularly significant, with groundwater levels dropping two to three feet a year or more.
The data is built ...
Creatine is popularly known as a muscle-building supplement, but its influence on human muscle function can be a matter of life or death.
“Creatine is very crucial for energy-consuming cells in skeletal muscle throughout the body, but also in the brain and in the heart,” said Chin-Yi Chen, a research scientist at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.
Chen is part of a research team working to develop a technique that uses focused ultrasound to deliver creatine directly to the brain. The work, being conducted ...
CO2 concentrations vary widely depending on the source, ranging, for example, from about 0.04% in the atmosphere to about 10% in flue gases. Moreover, these gas streams contain a significant amount of O2 (about 10%), a potent oxidizing agent. To achieve carbon neutrality, it is necessary to develop a robust process that can convert CO2 over a wide concentration range, even in the presence of O2. However, current technology does not offer a single unified approach that can efficiently handle CO2 conversion from trace to high concentrations. To meet this challenge, researchers at Hokkaido University and collaborators ...
WASHINGTON—A new Scientific Statement released today by the Endocrine Society highlights potential research directions related to the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes (T1D) that should help with the development of new and improved treatment options.
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic disease where the body's immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreatic islet. Type 1 diabetes requires lifelong insulin administration and may result in complications such as eye, kidney, nerve, and heart disease. ...
