SPA samples help analyze moon scar age

Breakthrough finding key to studies on evolution history of solar system

Chinese scientists have determined that the South Pole-Aitken basin, the largest and oldest impact scar on the moon, was formed 4.25 billion years ago, after analyzing lunar samples returned by the Chang'e 6 mission.

According to a news release published on Friday by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the new finding, achieved by researchers at its Institute of Geology and Geophysics in Beijing, is a major scientific breakthrough that enables scientists to establish a key reference point for understanding massive collisions during the early stages of solar system.

It has tremendous scientific value in the research of early histories of the solar system and the moon, the academy said.