China returns samples of lunar soil to Earth
With the return of the Chang’e-6 probe to Earth, China becomes the first country in the world to have obtained samples of dark half-moon rocks and soil.
The probe released a re-entry capsule carrying these samples into Earth’s orbit and the capsule landed in a rural area in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Tuesday.
The Chang’e-6 probe, named after the Chinese moon goddess, was launched into space from southern China in May and landed on a part of the moon that is never seen from Earth on June 2. The moon, due to mutual gravitational attraction with Earth, always shows only one face to the inhabitants of the blue planet while rotating around the Earth.