China publishes the world's most detailed atlas of the Moon: why it is important and could be a breakthrough in science. Photos and videos

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has published a geological map of the Moon that has the highest resolution ever created. Its scale is from one to two and a half million.

The map has more than 12 thousand craters. Famous Chinese scientist Ouyang Jiyuan claims that the atlas gives a complete picture of the Moon and possible future research on it, Space writes.

Chinese scientists and cartographers began drawing the map in 2012. About 100 scientists worked on it.

The project may indicate that China is now working on sending an unmanned spacecraft to the Moon, scientists believe.

This year, astronomers have already launched three spacecraft to explore the moon, and later China intends to send a spacecraft to study its "far side."

Thanks to the updated atlas, scientists will be able to better understand the history of the Moon, estimate potential lunar resources, and conduct comparative geological studies. According to scientists, it will also help in choosing a location for future missions, in particular, where to build a lunar research base.

The International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) is expected to start operating in the 2030s and send its first astronauts to the satellite by then.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA wrote about the near-Earth asteroid Kamoalev with a diameter of 40 to 100 meters, which was once part of the Moon. The object could have broken off from the crater named after the scientist Giordano Bruno.

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