Washington. Scientists’ 50-year-old hypothesis about the early history of the Moon has now come under fresh scrutiny. Such evidence has been found for the first time in the study of rock samples brought by China’s Chang’e-6 mission from the far side (farside) part of the Moon, which is always hidden from the Earth.
This raised serious questions about the Late Heavy Bombardment theory. According to this, the collisions of meteorites on the Moon did not happen in any short and destructive period, but kept happening gradually for billions of years. Researchers said, if further research also confirms this, then not only the evolution of the Moon but also the scientific timeline related to the origin of early Earth and life may have to be reconsidered.
The researchers analyzed 28 microscopic rock formations that melted due to the impact. The age indications of some of these samples were estimated to be 4.33 billion years old, while the age of others was found to be up to 1.13 billion years. The age of the three samples came out to be about 4.16 billion years.
Scientists did not find any major clusters of collisions in Chang’e-6 samples from about 3.9 billion years ago. That is, no specific evidence of a catastrophic period has been found in the new study.
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