A human space probe has returned an ancient alien visitor from the moon, rewriting the early history of the solar system.
China’s Chang’e-6 spacecraft made history in June 2024 by returning the first samples from the far side of the moon, a region never before explored by humans.
In a new study, scientists examined dusty soil from an ancient crater called the Apollo Basin and found seven tiny pieces of rock that did not belong to anything that formed naturally on the moon’s surface.
These small fragments turned out to be the remains of ancient asteroids that crashed into the moon billions of years ago.
Unlike ordinary moon rocks, these pieces come from watery asteroids that drifted into space between Mars and Jupiter, making them true “alien relics” from beyond our planet.
What’s more, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered that the relics came from the same type of space rock that likely supplied the chemicals necessary to start life on planets like Earth billions of years ago.
Asteroids like these delivered water and other key ingredients to the Moon early in its history, which likely helped create the thin layers of water ice we see today.
To a greater extent, the new discoveries have rewritten our understanding of how space rocks shaped the Earth and Moon, as meteorite finds on Earth are limited by our atmosphere and gravity, burning up potential samples before they can be studied.
China’s Chang’e-6 lander (pictured) returned to Earth in June 2024 and scientists have just discovered an alien relic deposited by an asteroid in lunar samples
The samples (pictured) are completely foreign compared to the Moon’s composition, meaning asteroids likely brought the icy water found on the Moon’s surface
The far side of the moon is the hidden half that we never see because our planet and the moon are tidally locked, meaning we always see the same face from our perspective.
Specifically, the team identified these seven fragments as the remains of a rare type of asteroid called CI-like carbonaceous chondrites.
At the heart of these mysterious patterns were tiny green crystals called olivine, which look like olive-shaped gems and form the backbone of the asteroids they came from.
Finding olivine in these space rocks was special because it’s filled with water trapped inside, plus just the right mix of iron, zinc, and other metals not seen on the relatively dry moon.
The samples matched the composition of other nearby asteroids recently studied by astronomers, including Ryugu, studied by Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission, and Bennu, studied by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx.
Research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) noted that most of the rocks ever returned from the moon formed there over time.
Scientists knew the new samples from Chang’e-6 did not form on the moon because of their makeup and hidden chemical fingerprints, which included 10 to 20 percent water trapped in clay-like minerals, amino acids and tar-like carbon compounds.
Scientists have also detected light gases like hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur, making these relics from space resemble wet sponges that carry the seeds of the ocean and air.
A Chinese lander collected over four pounds of rocks from the moon’s surface after successfully landing on the far side of the moon in May 2024.
Typical Moon rocks are mostly dry black lava rock and white feldspar, made of heavy iron, calcium, aluminum and titanium minerals, with almost no water.
“This discovery supports the hypothesis that asteroids played a role in delivering water and other volatiles to the lunar surface,” the researchers wrote.
Experts believe that these parts of the asteroid crashed on the far side of the moon more than four billion years ago, during the chaotic formation of the early solar system, when the giant hit exploded materials across the planets.
The discovery appears to prove that a similar process involving water-bearing asteroids occurred on the Moon that scientists suspect occurred on Earth at the dawn of time.
One theory claims an asteroid collision Like those found on the moon, they are also believed to have crashed into our planet, creating oceans and spilling amino acids – the basic ingredients that gave rise to tiny life forms in Earth’s warm pools.
Scientists believe that the same asteroid shower hit other planets, such as Mars, where it may have created ancient rivers and perhaps even early microbes that lurk underground today.
Even icy moons like Europa around Jupiter could get a life-giving boost from these asteroids, delivering heat, water and chemicals deep into their frozen oceans to make something organic.
NASA, China and India have announced that they will send additional missions to the moon before 2030, including US manned missions.