First lunar samples in over 45 years key to moon's history - msnNOW

Last December, China's ambitious lunar sampling mission returned to Earth with the first lunar samples since NASA's Apollo and Russia's Luna missions, which ended in 1976.

The first fresh samples in 45 years have now been analyzed — and they hold answers to previous questions about the moon, while also creating new ones, according to research published Tuesday in the journal Nature. .

Scientists were surprised to learn that the samples were 800 to 900 million years younger than the Apollo and Luna samples indicated. 

While the Apollo and Luna samples "provided an initial database for ages ranging from 4 to 3.1 billion years ago, as well as those younger than one billion years ago," the new Chang'E samples provides data in the middle, "fulfilling the long-sought-after goal to bridge the unanchored middle portion of the lunar crater-counting chronology," Li said. 

The Apollo and Luna samples were composed of KREEP, a mixture of potassium, rare earth elements and phosphorus — but the Chang'E samples were made of a different kind of magma. 

The research team plans to continue to analyze the samples, and to hopefully shine a light on how — and why — lunar volcanic activity changed between the Apollo and Luna samples and the Chang'E samples.