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Exclusive: 'Super map’ rewrites moon’s geo-clock, ‘an important foundation for humanity to explore deep space,’ project scientists tell GT_我的网站
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A massive new geological map of the moon, measuring about 2.8 meters long and 1.2 meters high, has recently made its debut in China, offering one of the most comprehensive portraits yet of the lunar surface and its billions of years of geological evolution.
Compiled by the Institute of Geology under the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS), together with the Institute of Geochemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin University, Shandong University and China University of Geosciences (Beijing), the 1:5,000,000-scale Geological Map of the moon marks 13,519 impact craters, 81 impact basins, 14 types of geological structures and 17 rock types, and includes detailed inset maps of the lunar north and south poles.
More than simply a new rendering of the lunar surface, the map incorporates the latest findings from China's Chang'e lunar exploration program. Scientists involved in the project told the Global Times in exclusive interviews that the new map recalibrates key boundaries in the moon's geological chronology, updates the distribution of important lunar rock types and establishes a more systematic framework for interpreting the moon's evolution.
"The Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 missions have successively returned samples from the moon's near and far side, producing findings that have significantly changed our understanding of lunar evolution," Ding Xiaozhong, a researcher at the Institute of Geology under CAGS and a core member of the mapping team, told the Global Times.
Samples showed that volcanic activity on the moon continued until about 2 billion years ago - roughly one billion years later than previously thought under the conventional framework. Meanwhile, observations and samples from the lunar far side have provided new information about the composition and magmatic history of the moon's deep interior, Ding said.
"These new discoveries created an urgent need for a new and systematic geological map that could integrate the latest data and research results and establish an updated framework for understanding lunar geology," he noted.
The 1:5,000,000 scale was chosen with practical applications in mind. Compared with China's more detailed 1:2,500,000 lunar geological atlas released in 2024, the new map provides a more condensed, global view of the Moon, enabling researchers to quickly identify major geological relationships while also making it suitable for education, popular science and the early-stage planning of exploration missions.
Jin Ming, an associate researcher at the Institute of Geology under CAGS, told the Global Times that the project also represents an important step toward establishing a mature Chinese standard for planetary geological mapping. Its newly designed symbols, legends and color system have been certified as a group standard by the Geological Society of China, filling a gap in China's standardized rules for planetary geological mapping.
Although the latest project formally began in 2022 and took about four years to complete, Ding and Jin said its scientific foundations stretch back decades. Data accumulation and methodology development began with China's early lunar exploration missions, particularly after Chang'e-1 started returning scientific data. Several generations of Chinese planetary geologists have since developed a comprehensive system for lunar geological interpretation, remote-sensing data processing and map compilation.
One of the toughest challenges was bringing together enormous quantities of remote-sensing data obtained by different instruments, Jin said. Different payloads aboard the Chang'e probes produced data with varying resolutions and spectral characteristics, requiring specially developed algorithms as well as extensive manual verification to place them under a unified mapping standard.
"We had to make the different datasets compatible under the same system while striking a balance between scientific completeness and visual clarity - avoiding information overload without losing critical geological clues," Jin said.
China previously released the world's first 1:2,500,000-scale high-precision lunar geological atlas in 2024. The newly completed 1:5,000,000 map is therefore not simply a reduced-scale copy, the scientists stressed, but a scientific update incorporating newly available data and revised interpretations of lunar chronology, lithology and geological evolution.
China's new lunar geological map has achieved an all-round improvement over previous versions and is now at the international forefront, Ding said.
We are the only country to have exclusive access to directly measured sampling data from the Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 missions. By using age anchors from lunar samples independently obtained by China to calibrate the geological chronology, this new data source and calibration system represents a core advantage of China."
Like Earth, which is divided into geological periods such as the Cambrian and Jurassic, the Moon also has a geological timescale. One of the most significant tasks behind the new map was to recalibrate that "lunar clock."
According to Jin, the recalibration draws on two major sources - the latest international isotopic dating results, including updated measurements of Apollo samples and lunar meteorites, and the precise age obtained from Chang'e-5 samples.
The latter provided an especially important chronological anchor. Radiometric dating of Chang'e-5 basalt has placed its age at roughly 2 billion years, demonstrating that lunar volcanism persisted far later than had once been assumed and substantially changing scientists' picture of the moon's late-stage thermal evolution.
Based on the updated evidence, the team refined the starting ages of several ancient lunar periods, including the Aitkenian, Nectarian and Imbrian periods, to approximately 4.33 billion, 4.17 billion and 3.92 billion years ago, respectively.
More significantly, the researchers used the 2-billion-year age boundary to divide the Eratosthenian into an early and a late epoch. The team said this marks the first time an age boundary derived from samples independently collected by China has been incorporated into such a detailed Chinese lunar geological chronology.
"The moon's story itself has not changed, but its timeline has," Jin said. "We once thought that major lunar volcanism had essentially cooled down about 3 billion years ago. Now we know that the Moon remained volcanically active until at least about 2 billion years ago. That means the thermal evolution of the lunar interior and many of the causal relationships in its later history need to be re-examined."
Ding highlighted a newly mapped rock type in the South Pole-Aitken Basin - gabbronorite - identified with the help of the latest Chang'e-4 and Chang'e-6 exploration results.
The vast basin on the lunar far side is one of the moon's largest and oldest impact crater.
"This is like being able to directly see material from deeper inside the moon," Ding said. "Previously, much of this could only be inferred from remote-sensing observations. With Chang'e-4 in-situ exploration and Chang'e-6's returned samples, we now have much stronger evidence for identifying its existence and distribution."
Another important revision concerns KREEP, a lunar geochemical component enriched in potassium, rare-earth elements and phosphorus and commonly associated with elevated concentrations of radioactive heat-producing elements such as thorium and uranium.
According to Ding, earlier models suggested that KREEP-rich material was concentrated in a relatively limited area. Higher-resolution data used in the new mapping project indicate a broader and more continuous distribution than previously thought, suggesting that its abundance may have been underestimated.
Ding said the finding is scientifically important not only for assessing potentially resource-rich lunar materials, but also because the distribution of KREEP provides clues to the crystallization of the early lunar magma ocean, the thickness of the lunar crust and the moon's internal thermal evolution.
The map's colors also carry geological meaning. The team follows a principle of "lighter for younger, darker for older": relatively young Copernican impact materials are depicted in bright pale yellow, ancient Aitkenian impact materials in deep purplish red, while mare basalts are represented in varying shades of blue.
"The color system combines the logic of geological evolution with elements of traditional Chinese color aesthetics, giving China's lunar geological maps a distinctive scientific and visual identity," Ding said.
Beyond basic science, the researchers said the new geological map can serve as a strategic base map for China's future lunar exploration, including subsequent Chang'e missions and planning related to the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).
A refined geological chronology can help scientists understand the age and modification history of candidate regions; updated rock mapping can identify areas of particular scientific or resource interest; and the global-scale representation allows mission planners to compare broad regions before moving to higher-resolution site studies.
Asked whether the map could directly support the Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8 missions, Jin stressed that its role is primarily strategic rather than tactical.
"The 1:5,000,000 geological map is a global-scale foundational map. It can be used for broad comparisons of potential landing regions and for evaluating their overall geological context," Jin said. "Precise landing-site selection and detailed rover-route planning, however, require higher-resolution regional geological maps. The two work together, moving progressively from the global scale to finer regional scales."
The scientists also stressed that the map is intended to be shared with the international scientific community. Digital versions are expected to be released through professional publications and public scientific databases, while the standardized symbols and mapping rules could facilitate exchanges with other planetary geological mapping systems.
Ding said significant room remains for international cooperation, from comparing and translating different geological mapping standards to joint studies of the evolution of the lunar far side and the origin of the ancient South Pole-Aitken Basin.
"China possesses unique exploration data and returned lunar samples, which provide a strong foundation for cooperation," Ding said, adding that planetary science, scientific training and deep-space exploration technologies all offer potential areas for expanded exchanges.
"A precise geological map of the moon is an important foundation for humanity to explore deep space and understand the universe," Jin said.
The latest map, he noted, is not an endpoint. As China proceeds with subsequent lunar exploration missions and acquires new observations and samples, the geological picture of the Moon will continue to be refined.
"Future exploration will allow us to keep updating our understanding of lunar geology," Jin said. "At the same time, we hope these results can contribute to broader international scientific cooperation and to humanity's exploration of the moon."
。 Suzanne Somers, the actress best known for her roles in TV comedies including "Three's Company" and "Step by Step," has died, her longtime publicist announced Sunday. She was 76 years old.“Suzanne Somers passed away peacefully at home in the early morning hours of October 15th," R. Couri Hay said in a statement. "She survived an aggressive form of breast cancer for over 23 years. Suzanne was surrounded by her loving husband Alan, her son Bruce, and her immediate family. Her family was gathered to celebrate her 77th birthday on October 16th. Instead, they will celebrate her extraordinary life, and want to thank her millions of fans and followers who loved her dearly."A private family burial will take place this week, Hay said, and a memorial will be held next month.Born Suzanne Marie Mahoney on Oct. 16, 1946, in San Bruno, California, Somers got her acting start in the late '60s and early '70s with small roles and bit parts in films like the 1968 Steve McQueen action classic "Bullitt," and Clint Eastwood's "Magnum Force" in 1973. That same year, she also had a brief but memorable appearance in the George Lucas-directed "American Graffiti," credited as "Blonde in T-Bird" who silently mouths the words "I love you" to star Richard Dreyfuss before driving away.Somers also appeared throughout the 1970s on hit TV shows including "The Rockford Files," "One Day at a Time," "The Six Million Dollar Man," "The Love Boat" and "Starsky & Hutch." However, her big break came when she was cast as the ditzy Chrissy Snow on the ABC sitcom "Three's Company" opposite Joyce DeWitt and the late John Ritter. The series, based on the British sitcom "Man About the House," revolved around the antics of three single roommates – Somers' Chrissy, Ritter's Jack Tripper and DeWitt's Janet Wood – living together platonically."Three's Company" was a hit, running for eight seasons between 1977 and 1984 and spawning several spinoff series. It also made Somers a sex symbol and household name. Before the show's fifth season, Somers famously demanded a raise from $30,000 an episode to $150,000, equal to what male co-star John Ritter reportedly was making then. When producers refused, Somers claimed health issues and declined to appear in two show episodes. Despite her popularity, her role was drastically reduced for the remainder of the season and she was fired when the season ended in 1981. Somers sued the show's producers for $2 million in response but received only a small fraction of what she asked.Widely criticized in the popular press for her "Three's Company" demands, Somers found it difficult for several years to secure acting, other than an occasional TV movie. She also starred on the short-lived, critically drubbed syndicated sitcom "She's the Sheriff" from 1987 to 1989. Somers also headlined a series of one-woman shows on the Las Vegas strip in the 1980s, which she reprised in 2015.To further help make ends meet, in 1990, Somers became the commercial spokesperson for the Thighmaster, a piece of personal exercise equipment meant to be squeezed between one's thighs to develop leg and hip strength. While the ubiquitous infomercials, featuring Somers in heels and a leotard, were widely lampooned, the product was a success, selling millions of units and earning Somers induction into the Direct Marketing Response Alliance Hall of Fame. Under her own business shingle, Somers ultimately began selling her own successful lines of personal products, including skin care, makeup, hair care and health products.Ten years after she was fired from "Three's Company," Somers scored her next big television role, when she was cast on ABC's "Step by Step" alongside "Dallas" alum Patrick Duffy. Similar to the plot of "The Brady Bunch," the sitcom starred Somers and Duffy as Frank and Carol, two single parents who married and blended their families, which consisted of three children each. Somers remained on this show, which was part of ABC's TGIF lineup until it changed networks for its final season, for its entire seven-season run, which ended in 1998.Somers worked sporadically in television in the years after "Step by Step" ended, including brief forays into talk. She gave Broadway a shot in 2005 with her one-woman show "The Blonde in the Thunderbird"– a reference to her cameo in "American Graffiti" more than 30 years earlier – featuring a collection of stories about her life and Hollywood career, but it closed after less than a week of performances due to poor ticket sales and bad notices. She also competed on season 20 of "Dancing with the Stars" in 2015 alongside her professional partner, Tony Dovolani, placing ninth.Somers battled breast cancer multiple times throughout her life. She was first diagnosed with the disease in 2000 during a routine mammogram and subsequently underwent a lumpectomy and radiation therapy for treatment, as well as seeking out alternative therapies. The actress opened up about additional bouts with breast cancer in 2023, telling ABC's "Good Morning America," "every now and then it pops up again, and I continue to bat it down.""This is not new territory for me. I know how to put on my battle gear and I'm a fighter," she continued at the time, adding that her husband had "been by my side every step of the way."Somers wrote numerous books, including memoirs, ones focused on health and wellness, cookbooks and even a collection of poetry. Her most recent was "Two's Company: A Fifty-Year Romance with Lessons Learned in Love, Life & Business," published in 2017.Somers was married twice. Her first marriage, to Bruce Somers, produced her only child, Bruce Jr., and ended in divorce in 1968 after three years. She met her future husband, Alan Hamel, in 1969 when she was a prize model on "Anniversary Game," the short-lived game show he was hosting. The two married in 1977 and remained together until her death.。
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