Overview
- The team reports a roughly 50-kilometer-wide, silicon-rich granite body beneath the far-side Compton–Belkovich craters.
- The overlying surface includes a ~20-kilometer caldera-like area that measures about 10°C warmer than nearby terrain.
- Researchers attribute the heat to long-lived radiogenic elements within the granite rather than any present-day magma.
- The analysis used microwave-wavelength instruments on Chang’E 1 and 2 with supporting U.S. orbital data to map temperatures below the surface.
- The peer-reviewed Nature study concludes the Moon hosted Earth-like intrusive igneous processes billions of years ago, with volcanic activity at this site ending around 3.5 billion years ago.