
Lunar samples reveal the far side of the moon, hidden from Earth's view, may have a cooler interior than the near side.
China's Chang'e 6 mission returned the first-ever samples from the far side of the moon in June 2024. A recent analysis of these fragments, collected from a vast crater inside the moon's South Pole–Aitken (SPA) basin, found that the samples were about 180°F (100°C) cooler than near-side samples gathered by NASA's Apollo missions.