Scientists have taken their most detailed look yet at the insides of the moon and its surface composition, and have concluded that our nearest celestial neighbour suffered an even more violent pummelling in its early years than previously thought.

Unlike Earth, where the shifting of tectonic plates and churning of the mantle have wiped out any evidence of the planet's early years, the moon has remained largely the same over the 4.5bn-year history of the solar system. Its rocks, craters and composition, are therefore a record of what was happening when the planets of the solar system were forming.