For the first time since 1976, we brought back lunar rocks down to Earth.<br />The capsule landed in Mongolia on December 16th, 2020 full of moon dirt and rocks. It should have collected 4.4 lbs. if everything went as planned. <br />China just has become the third nation to bring back moon samples to Earth. The other two are the Soviet Union and the United States.<br />Samples provided by Chang’e 5 should give a new understanding of the Moon’s history and evolution as the rocks have been collected in a region thought to be old of 1.2 billion years.<br />Those newest samples will fill a huge gap as the latest samples gathered were 3 billion years older.<br />Space learning is just beginning as the capsule of Japan’s Hayabusa2 returned on Earth as well on December 5th with samples of asteroid Ryugu.<br />We’re now expecting on September 2023, Nasa’s OSIRIS-Rex samples of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.
