How China’s Moon mission could reveal the origins of life on Earth
The Moon is the most likely place for evidence from the dawn of life on Earth to be preserved in cold storage.China’s Chang’e-6 mission landed in the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin to collect lunar material, which will be analyzed to search for evidence of the origin of life on Earth. This region, being one of the oldest lunar impact craters, might contain ancient fossils and geological samples that predate Earth’s oldest known rocks. Chang’e-6 is set to return to Earth on June 25.
On June 1, China’s Chang’e-6 lander touched down in the South Pole-Atkin Basin — the largest, deepest, and oldest impact crater on the Moon. The probe almost immediately set to work drilling into the ground to collect about 2 kilograms of lunar material, which is already headed back to Earth, with a landing in Mongolia planned for June 25. It isn’t just planetary geologists who are excited at what the returning rocks and soil might reveal. If we’re lucky, the first samples from the lunar farside could also include some of the oldest fossils ever found.
How China’s Moon mission could reveal the origins of life on Earth
The Moon is the most likely place for evidence from the dawn of life on Earth to be preserved in cold storage.
bigthink.com