First samples ever collected from 'far side' of the moon make it back

China’s lunar probe has returned to Earth, making the country the first to bring back samples from the moon’s far side.

The re-entry capsule of the Chang’e probe touched down in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia at about 2pm Beijing time (7am UK time), carrying lunar soil collected earlier in June.

At the start of the month, the probe had successfully landed at the moon’s South Pole, in the Aitken Basin, a gigantic impact crater that always faces away from Earth.

Chinese scientists anticipate the returned samples will include 2.5-million-year-old volcanic rock and other material that they hope will answer questions about geographic differences on the moon’s two sides.

The moon’s near side – which always faces the Earth – is flatter and has fewer impact craters. The far side always faces outer space.

Why the same side of the moon always faces the Earth

Wherever people may be on Earth, they will always see the same side of the moon.

That is because the moon takes as long to rotate on its own axis as it does to complete its monthly orbit around our planet.

This phenomenon is known as synchronous tidal locking, whereby the moon started off spinning faster than it does now, but then slowed and ended up facing the Earth as it does now, according to NASA.

But it’s not just the moon which synchronises with Earth.

In fact, the phenomenon is quite common, with all the solar system’s large moons tidally locking with their planets. And in some cases, stars also do the same when they have binary…