New Discoveries from Chang'e 6: The Far Side of the Moon is More Dangerous

Is there a significant difference in the space environment between the front and back sides of the Moon? What challenges do bases on the front side face compared to those on the back side? In July 2026, our country's research team, relying on the 1,935-gram lunar soil samples returned by the Chang'e 6 mission, provided some answers. The details were published in the prestigious international journal "Nature - Earth Science." By analyzing the "chemical fingerprints" of rare gases in the lunar soil, the team confirmed a long-standing hypothesis that has puzzled the scientific community for decades: Earths vast magnetic field slows down solar wind, resulting in drastically different levels of cosmic particle bombardment between the front and back sides of the Moon. This natural cosmic record of lunar soil has, for the first time, fully documented the hemispherical differences in the space environment between Earth and the Moon.