Volcanoes have erupted on the lunar surface within a geologically recent timespan, and the moon could still be volcanically active today, according to tiny glass beads in lunar dirt brought back to Earth by the Chinese Chang'e 5 sample-return mission in December 2020. The discovery could turn what we thought we knew about the evolution of the moon on its head.
We know that the moon had volcanism in the distant past, because we can see the evidence literally all over the face of our nearest neighbor — the dark markings of the famous "man in the moon" are lunar maria, which are vast, volcanic plains dating back three to 3.8 billion years. It was thought that this was the last time the moon was volcanically active.
