NEW SCIENTIST: Moon rocks can tell us where life could thrive beyond the solar system

Description

THERE have been more than 70 successful missions to the moon: fly-bys, orbiters, landers and of course 12 moonwalkers. After Earth, it is the most studied celestial object in our solar system. These missions have unlocked the moon’s geological history, determined its internal structure and measured its surface composition. The conclusions of those explorations stretch well beyond the barren lunar surface.

“The moon has been Earth’s sister through these last four and a half billion years,” says Katherine Joy, a lunar geologist at the University of Manchester, UK. Like all siblings, the moon has secrets to tell.