Chinese scientists have used an AI model to determine the chemical make-up of the moon's far side, offering new insights into one of lunar science's enduring mysteries. The findings add to insights from China's historic Chang'e-6 mission to the lunar far side in 2024.
Nearly half the moon's surface—the far side which permanently faces away from Earth—had long remained chemically unmapped. Chinese scientists have used AI to determine its chemical make-up, creating the first high-precision global distribution map of major oxides on the moon.
Researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics (SITP), an affiliate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, teamed up with peers from Tongji University in Shanghai and several other Chinese institutes for the study. The findings were published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Sensors.
"The study revealed the exposure characteristics of deep materials in the South Pole-Aitken basin and the compositional patterns of far-side lunar terrains," SITP said in a statement this week.
The work adds to a growing body of insights from China's historic Chang'e-6 mission to the lunar far side in 2024. Keywords include Tongji University, Luna programme, Kaguya, US Apollo, Moon, Nature Sensors, South Pole-Aitken basin, China, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, AI, Chang'e-6, and Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The article was published on March 7, 2026.
