The moon, once covered by an ocean of molten rock ??

Recent data from India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission suggests that the Moon was once entirely covered by a vast ocean of molten rock. This discovery provides new insights into the formation and evolution of Earth’s only natural satellite.
Scientists believe that the Moon formed when a Mars-sized planet collided with Earth, ejecting debris that eventually coalesced into our lunar neighbor. The resulting Moon is thought to have been completely molten for millions of years. As this magma ocean cooled and crystallized, it formed the Moon’s crust, which is primarily composed of a type of rock known as ferroan anorthosite.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission, which landed near the Moon’s south pole in August 2023, deployed a rover named Pragyan to explore the lunar surface. The data collected by Pragyan revealed a remarkably uniform chemical composition of the lunar soil, or regolith, in the landing area. This regolith is primarily composed of ferroan anorthosite, a finding that supports the hypothesis of a global magma ocean.
By comparing the chemical composition of the lunar samples collected by Chandrayaan-3 with those returned by the Apollo 16 and Luna-20 missions, scientists have found striking similarities. This consistency in composition, despite the vast distances between the sample sites, strongly suggests that all of these rocks originated from a single, global magma ocean that once covered the entire Moon.

Image: https://www.pexels.com/fr-fr/photo/lune-de-sang-1276314/