Chang'e-4: Chinese rover 'confirms' Moon crater theory

Source: BBC

Chang'e-4: Chinese rover 'confirms' Moon crater theory

By Paul Rincon
Science editor, BBC News website

15 May 2019

The Chinese Chang'e-4 rover may have confirmed a longstanding idea about the origin of a vast crater on the Moon's far side.

The rover's landing site lies within a vast impact depression created by an asteroid strike billions of years ago.

Now, mission scientists have found evidence that impact was so powerful it punched through the Moon's crust and into the layer below called the mantle.

Chang'e-4 has identified what appear to be mantle rocks on the surface.

It's something the rover was sent to the far side to find out.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48285503

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Related: Chang’E-4 initial spectroscopic identification of lunar far-side mantle-derived materials (Nature)


The Chang'e-4 rover has been exploring Von Kármán crater since January this year (CLEP)