After analyzing the sample brought by Chang'e-6, researchers found that the moon’s oldest and deepest crater on its far side was volcanically active around 2.8 billion years ago.

Space volcanoes have erupted on dark side of moon for over a billion years, scientists find - Li said the new findings reveal over 1 billion years of volcanic eruptions on the lunar far side. One piece of volcanic rock dated back 4.

Researchers analyzed lunar soil brought back by China's Chang'e-6, the first spacecraft to return with a haul of rocks and dirt from the little-explored far side.

Volcanic rock, dating back billions of years, has been detected in the first samples collected from the mysterious "dark side".

The Moon was volcanically active for a long time, but if we look at its mysterious far side, we now know exactly how long that was the case. Thanks to samples collected by the Chinese Chang’e-6 probe,