BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 12, 2023--

Scientists have just uncovered billions of years’ worth of secrets buried beneath the surface of the moon. Our celestial companion has been a source of awe and mystery since time immemorial, but now, thanks to China’s space programme, we’re starting to piece together its past. In 2018, the Chang’e-4 lander, of the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA), became the first spacecraft ever to land on the far side (or the dark side, if you'd prefer) of the moon. Since then, it has been capturing incredible images of impact craters and extracting mineral samples, offering a long-sought insight into the structures that make up the top 1,000 feet of the moon’s surface. Earlier this month, the Chang’e-4’s findings were finally published, and the world was invited to delve deep into the history of our cherished natural satellite. The results, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, reveal that the top 130 feet (40m) of the lunar surface are made up of multiple layers of dust, soil, and broken rocks. Hidden within these layers is a crater, which formed when a large object slammed into the moon, according to Jianqing Feng, an astrogeological researcher at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, who co-led the pioneering analysis. Beneath this, Feng and his colleagues discovered five distinct layers of lunar lava that spread across the landscape billions of years ago. Experts believe that our moon formed 4.51 billion years ago, when a Mars-size object crashed into Earth and broke off a chunk of our planet, as Live Science notes. Over the following 200 million years or so, the moon continued to be pummelled by space debris, with numerous impacts leaving cracks in its surface. Just like on Earth, the moon’s mantle contained pockets of molten magma, which infiltrated the newly formed cracks thanks to a series of volcanic eruptions, Feng explained. However, the new data provided by Chang’e-4 showed that the closer the volcanic rock was to the moon’s surface, the thinner it got. "[The moon] was slowly cooling down and running out of steam in its later volcanic stage," Feng said. "Its energy became weak over time." It is understood that volcanic activity on the moon died out between a billion and 100 million years ago, which means it is largely considered “geologically dead”. However, Feng and his co-authors have suggested there could still be magma buried deep beneath the lunar surface. Chang’e-4 still has much work to do, and Feng and his team hope this is just the beginning of their literally ground-breaking mapping of the moon. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Find out when Vampire Survivors comes to Switch and how much it will cost you.

Grammarly Inc., a software company known for its writing assistant, is trying to expand its business to the

BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 2, 2023--

California authorities have asked General Motors to "immediately" take some of its Cruse robotaxis off the road after autonomous vehicles were involved in two collisions -- including one with an active fire truck -- last week in San Francisco.

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When we started Refinery29 Twitch almost a year ago, we knew we wanted to use it not only to provide a fun, safe space for women and non-binary folks to share in their love of gaming, but also to spotlight the pros, gamers, and streamers who are pushing the status quo in the industry both online and IRL. But with a vast world of content creators competing for attention on Twitch alone, finding streamers who you love can be a challenge.

Square Enix has killed 'Just Cause: Mobile' but a fifth game in the franchise is in development

The trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 will be arriving for the whole world to see on December 5th after more than 10 years of fans waiting for the next installment of the incredibly popular gaming series. The game's developer Rockstar Games announced on December 1st that the trailer would be arriving on Tuesday and even before the announcement, fans were pouring over every possible detail they could find. Some believe they've already pinpointed where the game will be set, the size of the map which is expected to be humungous and just how "beautiful" the graphics will be. Ahead of the trailer Rockstar Games released a single image for the trailer which is of a sunset against palm trees and three seagulls. Nothing too special and worth reading into? Think again. Over on Reddit, fans have theorised that the three birds could signify that the game will again have three playable characters again just like there were in GTA 5. One Reddit user wrote: "I was wondering if the three birds were significant, like maybe we’re getting three characters again." IGN reports that people think the birds signify what songs could be included in the game with popular suggestions being 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley and The Wailers or 'Free Bird' by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Whether the birds mean anything remains to be seen but fans won't have to wait long to find out but there is no date on when the game will actually be released with some fearing that it could still be years. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Baby Gronk's father, Jake San Miguel, was criticized for attempting to capitalize on his son’s online fame to contact Paige Spiranac and Taylor Lewan