According to a recent report by the US Space Network, a new study by scientists showed that a small piece of debris hidden in a large sample brought back by the Apollo astronauts from the surface of the moon in 1971 came from the Earth. The new study suggests that about 4 billion years ago, a big collision could have caused the debris to leave the Earth and reach the moon, and experienced a dramatic space fantasy journey.
The research team led by Jeremy Bellucci of the Swedish Museum of Natural History and the Swedish Museum Alexander Nemtchin analyzed the moon samples collected by astronauts performing the Apollo 14 mission. These astronauts explored the surface of the moon in early February 1971.
The research team pointed out that chemical analysis showed that the debris crystallized about 20 kilometers below the surface of the Earth between 4.1 billion and 4 billion years ago. Soon after , it was launched into space due to a violent impact and soon reached the moon. However, its tragic fate is not over.
They found that a piece of the sample containing about 2 grams consisted of quartz, feldspar and zircon, which are rare on the moon but common on Earth.
The researchers said that the latest collision created a Cone Crater about 340 meters wide. 47 years ago, the astronauts who performed the Apollo 14 mission explored the area around the site. Sampling, samples containing this fragment were collected.
About 3.9 billion years ago, in another impact, part of it was melted and may be buried. Since then, another impact about 26 million years ago has made it "review the sky."
The team members stressed that this ancient fragment originated from the earth may not be the final conclusion, but the simplest explanation. If the piece was born on the moon, we may need to revisit the situation inside the moon long ago.
David Clin, co-author of the study, American lunar and planetary scientist, said: "This is an extraordinary discovery that helps us better depict the early Earth and the scene that changed the face of the Earth at the beginning of Earth's life. The picture of the big impact."
The largest impact crater on the moon - the valley crater
The Valley of the Second Valley and its vicinity is one of the most famous craters on the surface of the moon. Named after the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. It is located in the southern part of the moon, with an approximate position of 43.31°S 11.36°W. The Valley of the Second Valley is one of the most observed craters, with a diameter of about 85 kilometers and a depth of about 4,850 meters. At the bottom of the crater, there are more complex central peaks, up to 1,600 meters. The diameter of the Valley of the Second Valley is 51 miles (about 82 kilometers), which can be seen on the earth with the naked eye. In fact, it is the target of many astronomers.
When will China bring back the moon rock? Look at this official news below
On the 14th press conference held by the State Council Information Office, Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the National Space Administration and deputy chief of the lunar exploration project, introduced the mission of the No. 4 mission and China's follow-up deep space exploration program.
He said that China will continue to implement the lunar exploration project and break through the automatic sampling and returning technology of the celestial bodies outside the detector. The second round will be launched around the end of 2019, and the 嫦娥5 is to be sampled and returned to realize the soft landing and sampling return. The lunar exploration project will achieve the goal of “winding, falling and returning”.
Wu Yanhua introduced that since the implementation of the lunar exploration project, China has gradually achieved certain results in the field of deep space exploration. In December 2013, the third day of the Chinese spacecraft made a soft landing of the outer space of the Chinese spacecraft and completed the surface inspection of the lunar surface. In November 2014, the third phase of the lunar exploration project re-entered the flight test successfully; in January 2019, On the 4th, it successfully landed on the back of the moon, the von Carmen crater, to achieve the first soft landing of the human detector on the back of the moon, to carry out in-situ and patrol detection, and the L2 point relay communication.
As the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project kicks off, the Lunar 6 and other lunar probes will be launched, and the lunar polar zone detection and the lunar south pole sampling return will be performed as planned. The No. 7 plan will perform lunar Antarctic comprehensive exploration, including terrain. Detection of landforms, material composition, etc.
In addition, China plans to implement four deep space exploration missions such as Mars, asteroids and Jupiter exploration by 2030. It is expected to launch a Mars probe for the first time in 2020, and conduct a Mars round-trip survey. 3 missions such as detection, Jupiter and planetary crossing detection.
When are we going to land on the moon?
In the moon landing plan announced by China, the exact time for manned landing is not given; however, according to relevant sources, the conservative time for China’s manned landing on the moon is around 2030, the fastest around 2025.
The most difficult technical bottleneck for manned landing on the moon is to return to Earth from the moon. There is no launch tower on the moon, but the quality of the moon is not large, which requires the escape speed of the moon (2.4km/s) to be much lower than the earth (7.9km/s). Even so, this requires a great power to mount the lunar module.