China has allowed scientists from a number of different countries, including the US, to examine rocks brought back from the Moon by its Chang’e-5 probe.
On Thursday the Chinese space agency said that it would allow the foreign scientists to study the rocks, which had been collected by the Chinese craft in 2020.
Shan Zhongde, head of the China National Space Administration, was quoted as saying that the samples were “a shared treasure for all humanity”.
What makes the rocks of particular scientific interest is that they seem to be about a billion years younger than rocks brought back to Earth by the Apollo mission. This means that volcanic activity could have occurred on the Moon for a much longer period than was previously believed.
Institutions from Japan, Pakistan, the UK, France, and Germany have also been invited to study the rocks.