BEIJING, (Pakistan Point News - 06th Oct, 2025) Chinese scientists have discovered that the far side of the Moon is colder deep within its interior than the side that permanently faces Earth.
According to China Central Television (CCTV), researchers found that rocks from the Moon’s far side were formed from lava deep within its interior at about 1,100 degrees Celsius, around 100 degrees Celsius cooler than samples collected from the near side.
The study, published in Nature Geoscience, is based on an analysis of rock fragments collected in 2024 by China’s Chang’e-6 spacecraft from the far side of the Moon.
The research team, comprising scientists from the China National Nuclear Corporation, Beijing University, and Shandong University, confirmed that the rocks are approximately 2.8 billion years old.
Scientists also compared remote sensing data of the Chang'e-6 landing site on the far side with equivalent data from the near side. The results showed a difference of 70 degrees Celsius, closely matching the results of the sample analysis.
"The temperature of the lunar mantle on the far side of the moon is lower than that on the near side. The basalt samples we collected were formed about 2.8 billion years ago. So the temperatures we have calculated reflect conditions in the past, not the present. They reflect conditions deep inside the moon - the lunar mantle, not the lunar surface," said He Sheng, a researcher of the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology of China National Nuclear Corporation.
China's Chang'e-6 mission in 2024 accomplished humanity's first-ever sampling from the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the Moon. The Chang'e-5 probe landed in 2020 on the northwest region of the Ocean of Storms.
