The soil from beyond the moon suggests a dryer state than the planet facing the earth.
This handout from China’s National Space Agency (CNSA) is an image released by Xinhua News Agency, showing the Lander-Assender combination taken by the Mini Rover after landing on the moon on June 4, 2024.
Chinese scientists suggested on Wednesday that the soil and rocks that have returned from the mysterious distance of the moon may be drier than the globe-facing side.
However, they warned that clearer images require more samples.
A better understanding of the lunar mantle’s abundant water can help explain how the moon evolved, researchers noted. But that could also be why astronauts are stuck near the moon as planned now.
China became the first country to land on the other side of the moon last year. The Chang’e 6 spacecraft scooped up volcanic rocks and dirt from the vast ancient Antarctic-Aitken Basin, one of the largest impact craters in the solar system.
The senator of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said he and his team received 5 grams of soil samples and then selected 578 particles for detailed analysis using an electron microscope.
They estimated abundance of less than 1.5 micrograms per gram at the dry edge of what was found in samples collected over the past decades from near the moon. Sample measurements from the near side ranged from 1 to 200 micrograms per gram.
Given the limited sampling, it is uncertain how widespread this dryness is, scientists say in a study published in Nature.
“We need a farther sample to test and understand it further,” Hu said in an email.
The impact of creating this basin could have caused water elements to have been blown up nearby, leaving the distance depleted. Another possibility is that the vertical distribution of water may differ between the two hemispheres.
Even if confirmed, the findings should not significantly alter NASA’s plan to send astronauts to the Antarctic region of the Moon. This frozen water can be used for drinking, cooking and rocket fuel production.
NASA aims to send four astronauts around next month under the Artemis Program, an Artemis program that placed 12 men on the moon from 1969 to 1972. Then, astronauts will land more near the Antarctic on the moon than in 2027.
Details: Water abundance in Huicun He et al, Lunar Farside Mantle, Nature (2025). doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08870-x
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Quote: Soil from beyond the moon suggests a drier condition than the side-facing side (April 12, 2025) obtained from https://phys.org/2025-04-04-Soil-moon-drier-conditions.html on April 13, 2025.
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