The first lunar samples from the moon’s far side differ in some interesting ways from those collected from the near side, according to two new studies.

Basalt samples returned by the Chang'e-6 mission have revealed volcanic events on the lunar farside at 2.8 billion years ago (Ga) and 4.2 Ga, according to research conducted by Prof. Li Qiuli's lab at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.