Chang'e-6 far-side Moon samples suggest prolonged decline in asteroid impacts (heise.de)

• Chang'e 6 returned first far-side lunar samples in 2024.
• Impact ages range from 4.3 billion to 1.13 billion years.
• Findings challenge the Late Heavy Bombardment hypothesis.

"The Chinese Chang'e 6 mission brought the first rock samples from the far side of the Moon to Earth in 2024. A team led by the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry has now studied asteroid impact traces in that material and published results in Science Advances. Impact ages range from 4.3 billion to 1.13 billion years. The data contradict the Late Heavy Bombardment hypothesis, which assumes a short phase of intense impacts about four billion years ago. Instead, researchers say asteroid bombardment gradually faded. The far side preserves a more complete impact record than the near side, which was reshaped by the Mare Imbrium impact. The work involved Curtin University in Australia."