China releases world’s most detailed Moon map

CHINA: China has released a new geological map of the moon, which it says is the most detailed to date, registering even finer details of the lunar surface than mapped by the US in 2020.

The new map, which has details of craters and structures not charted before, will assist in further research of the moon, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Science Centre had, for the first time, mapped and classified the entire lunar surface in collaboration with Nasa and the Lunar Planetary Institute in 2020.

That digital map showed the moon’s geology in, what the Science Centre described as, incredible detail at a scale of 1:5000000. Chinese scientists, however, say they have done better.

“China has released a new comprehensive geologic map of the moon to a scale of 1:2500000, the most detailed to date,” China’s national broadcaster, CGTN said in a brief report on Wednesday. “The map includes 12,341 impact craters, 81 impact basins, 17 rock types and 14 types of structures, providing abundant information about geology of the moon and its evolution,” the report said.

The map project was led by the Institute of Geochemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. China has sent several probes to the moon in the last few decades.

China has also left its mark on the Moon. At least eight features on the Moon near the landing area of the Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-5 were named after Chinese scientists and places in May 2021.

– THE HINDUSTAN TIMES