The Moon: Our Bright Celestial Companion, Part 1 of 2

In 2025, scientists analyzing Apollo 17 samples identified an “exotic sulfur” – a chemical fingerprint that may be as old as, or even older than, the Moon itself. Scientists believe many of these resources were brought to the surface from the Moon’s primitive interior by volcanic eruptions more than four billion years ago. A Mars-sized world called Theia struck the young Earth, and from the fire and debris of that ancient impact, the Moon was born.

In May 2024, China’s Chang’e 6 touched down inside the South Pole-Aitken Basin, a gigantic scar more than 2,500 kilometers wide on the Moon’s far side. One fragment of lava found by Chang’e 6 dates back 4.2 billion years. The oldest Moon rock discovered so far. But they also found a lot of relatively young volcanic rocks on the far side, with an average age of 2.8 billion years. The finding suggests that volcanic activity on the far side persisted much longer than on the side facing Earth. To find out whether the far side was as water-rich as scientists had suspected, an international team analyzed samples returned by Chang’e 6. The result was surprising. The rocks contained only about one and a half micrograms of water per gram – far drier than samples from the near side. Researchers described this as a “dichotomous distribution of water.”

Another intriguing study concerns life itself. Led by Dr. John Moores of York University, researchers examined the permanently shadowed Shackleton and Faustini craters. Though unable to grow or reproduce, such microscopic traces could potentially survive for decades or even centuries.