冷暖人生
Exclusive: 'Super map’ rewrites moon’s geo-clock, ‘an important foundation for humanity to explore deep space,’ project scientists tell GT_我的网站
A | 이준경 호남취재본부 부장"교부금을 축소하지 않겠습니다"정부가 지난 7월부터 약속이라도 한 듯 앵무새처럼 반복하고 있는 문장이다. 교육부와 기획예산처의 공식 입장이다. 총액 기준으로 75조7,000억원에서 92조7,000억원으로 늘어나니, 이들의 말은 '기술적'으로는 사실이다.하지만 지난 25일 국회에서 열린 교육감협의회 긴급 기자회견장을 지켜보며 기자가 느낀 것은 안도감이 아닌 '절망'이었다. 정부의 숫자는 완벽했을지 모르나, 현장의 현실은 철저히 외면당하고 있었다.'100%에서 35%로'…스스로 증명한 정책의 촌극정부 개편안의 핵심은 반세기 넘게 이어진 내국세 20.79% 자동 연동 방식을 폐지하는 것이다. 대신 '전년도 교부금 + 경상성장률 + 학령인구 변화율 35%'라는 새로운 산정 공식을 내밀었다. 가장 모순적인 부분은 당초 학령인구 감소율을 100% 반영하려다 현장의 충격과 인건비 부담(약 58%)을 의식해 35%로 슬그머니 낮췄다는 점이다.심지어 교부금이 전년보다 줄어들면 차액을 보전해 총액 감소를 막는다는 '안전장치'까지 달았다. 이 보전 조항은 사실상 정부 스스로 새 산정 방식의 안정성을 신뢰하지 못함을, 개혁이 실패할 수 있음을 자인한 꼴이다. 교육계는 물론, 재정학계마저 영유아 및 고등·평생교육으로 재원을 돌리려던 당초 취지에 비춰보면 개편 효과가 기대에 한참 못 미친다며 냉소를 보내는 이유다."앉아서 1조 8천억원 뺏긴다"…벼랑 끝에 선 지역 교육가장 시린 곳은 역시나 지역이다. 특히 지난 7월 출범한 전남광주통합특별시의 상황은 참담하다. 통합 특별법 제정 당시 교육세 감액에 따른 보전 규정이 빠져 이미 5,423억원의 손실을 떠안은 상태다.여기에 이번 교부금 개편안이 적용되면 추가로 1조8,315억원이 증발한다. 이중고를 넘어선 재난 수준이다. 현행 방식이라면 마땅히 늘어났을 2조원의 80% 이상을 못 받게 되니, "앉아서 뺏긴다"는 말이 나올 수밖에 없다.김대중 전남광주통합특별시교육감의 호소는 그래서 뼈아프다. 그는 "학생 수가 줄어든다는 이유로 교육예산까지 줄여도 된다는 경제논리에 동의할 수 없다"고 호소했다.학생 수가 줄어든다고 교실 난방을 절반만 켤 수 있는가. 기초학력 보장, 학교 급식과 돌봄 등 기본 환경은 그대로 유지해야 하며, AI·디지털 교육 등 새로운 투자 수요는 오히려 폭발적으로 늘고 있다. 권한과 책임은 현장에 넘기면서 이에 상응하는 재정과 정원은 보장하지 않는 놀부 심보를 정부는 '효율성'이라 포장하고 있다.정부의 엑셀표 안에서 교부금은 분명 우상향 그래프를 그리고 있을 것이다. 하지만 기대 수치를 대폭 하락시키고 상대적 손실을 강요하는 것을 현장은 '축소'가 아닌 '탈취'로 느낀다. 교육은 기업의 구조조정과 다르다. 당장의 재정 효율성을 핑계로 미래를 깎아 먹는 행위는 개혁이 아니라 기만이다.이제 공은 국회로 넘어갔다. 재정전략기획담당관을 단장으로 전담 대응팀을 꾸리고 전국 354개 단체와 연대해 법안을 저지하겠다는 교육청의 투쟁은 살기 위한 발버둥이다. 국회는 정부의 차가운 '기술적 거짓' 뒤에 숨겨진 지역 학생들의 아슬아슬한 내일을 직시해야 한다. 경제 논리에 짓눌린 백년지대계의 청구서는 결국 우리 아이들이 갚아야 하기 때문이다.。
A massive new geological map of the moon, measuring about 2.8 meters long and 1.2 meters high, has recently made its debut in China, offering one of the most comprehensive portraits yet of the lunar surface and its billions of years of geological evolution.
Compiled by the Institute of Geology under the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS), together with the Institute of Geochemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin University, Shandong University and China University of Geosciences (Beijing), the 1:5,000,000-scale Geological Map of the moon marks 13,519 impact craters, 81 impact basins, 14 types of geological structures and 17 rock types, and includes detailed inset maps of the lunar north and south poles.
More than simply a new rendering of the lunar surface, the map incorporates the latest findings from China's Chang'e lunar exploration program. Scientists involved in the project told the Global Times in exclusive interviews that the new map recalibrates key boundaries in the moon's geological chronology, updates the distribution of important lunar rock types and establishes a more systematic framework for interpreting the moon's evolution.
"The Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 missions have successively returned samples from the moon's near and far side, producing findings that have significantly changed our understanding of lunar evolution," Ding Xiaozhong, a researcher at the Institute of Geology under CAGS and a core member of the mapping team, told the Global Times.
Samples showed that volcanic activity on the moon continued until about 2 billion years ago - roughly one billion years later than previously thought under the conventional framework. Meanwhile, observations and samples from the lunar far side have provided new information about the composition and magmatic history of the moon's deep interior, Ding said.
"These new discoveries created an urgent need for a new and systematic geological map that could integrate the latest data and research results and establish an updated framework for understanding lunar geology," he noted.
The 1:5,000,000 scale was chosen with practical applications in mind. Compared with China's more detailed 1:2,500,000 lunar geological atlas released in 2024, the new map provides a more condensed, global view of the Moon, enabling researchers to quickly identify major geological relationships while also making it suitable for education, popular science and the early-stage planning of exploration missions.
Jin Ming, an associate researcher at the Institute of Geology under CAGS, told the Global Times that the project also represents an important step toward establishing a mature Chinese standard for planetary geological mapping. Its newly designed symbols, legends and color system have been certified as a group standard by the Geological Society of China, filling a gap in China's standardized rules for planetary geological mapping.
Although the latest project formally began in 2022 and took about four years to complete, Ding and Jin said its scientific foundations stretch back decades. Data accumulation and methodology development began with China's early lunar exploration missions, particularly after Chang'e-1 started returning scientific data. Several generations of Chinese planetary geologists have since developed a comprehensive system for lunar geological interpretation, remote-sensing data processing and map compilation.
One of the toughest challenges was bringing together enormous quantities of remote-sensing data obtained by different instruments, Jin said. Different payloads aboard the Chang'e probes produced data with varying resolutions and spectral characteristics, requiring specially developed algorithms as well as extensive manual verification to place them under a unified mapping standard.
"We had to make the different datasets compatible under the same system while striking a balance between scientific completeness and visual clarity - avoiding information overload without losing critical geological clues," Jin said.
China previously released the world's first 1:2,500,000-scale high-precision lunar geological atlas in 2024. The newly completed 1:5,000,000 map is therefore not simply a reduced-scale copy, the scientists stressed, but a scientific update incorporating newly available data and revised interpretations of lunar chronology, lithology and geological evolution.
China's new lunar geological map has achieved an all-round improvement over previous versions and is now at the international forefront, Ding said.
We are the only country to have exclusive access to directly measured sampling data from the Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 missions. By using age anchors from lunar samples independently obtained by China to calibrate the geological chronology, this new data source and calibration system represents a core advantage of China."
Like Earth, which is divided into geological periods such as the Cambrian and Jurassic, the Moon also has a geological timescale. One of the most significant tasks behind the new map was to recalibrate that "lunar clock."
According to Jin, the recalibration draws on two major sources - the latest international isotopic dating results, including updated measurements of Apollo samples and lunar meteorites, and the precise age obtained from Chang'e-5 samples.
The latter provided an especially important chronological anchor. Radiometric dating of Chang'e-5 basalt has placed its age at roughly 2 billion years, demonstrating that lunar volcanism persisted far later than had once been assumed and substantially changing scientists' picture of the moon's late-stage thermal evolution.
Based on the updated evidence, the team refined the starting ages of several ancient lunar periods, including the Aitkenian, Nectarian and Imbrian periods, to approximately 4.33 billion, 4.17 billion and 3.92 billion years ago, respectively.
More significantly, the researchers used the 2-billion-year age boundary to divide the Eratosthenian into an early and a late epoch. The team said this marks the first time an age boundary derived from samples independently collected by China has been incorporated into such a detailed Chinese lunar geological chronology.
"The moon's story itself has not changed, but its timeline has," Jin said. "We once thought that major lunar volcanism had essentially cooled down about 3 billion years ago. Now we know that the Moon remained volcanically active until at least about 2 billion years ago. That means the thermal evolution of the lunar interior and many of the causal relationships in its later history need to be re-examined."
Ding highlighted a newly mapped rock type in the South Pole-Aitken Basin - gabbronorite - identified with the help of the latest Chang'e-4 and Chang'e-6 exploration results.
The vast basin on the lunar far side is one of the moon's largest and oldest impact crater.
"This is like being able to directly see material from deeper inside the moon," Ding said. "Previously, much of this could only be inferred from remote-sensing observations. With Chang'e-4 in-situ exploration and Chang'e-6's returned samples, we now have much stronger evidence for identifying its existence and distribution."
Another important revision concerns KREEP, a lunar geochemical component enriched in potassium, rare-earth elements and phosphorus and commonly associated with elevated concentrations of radioactive heat-producing elements such as thorium and uranium.
According to Ding, earlier models suggested that KREEP-rich material was concentrated in a relatively limited area. Higher-resolution data used in the new mapping project indicate a broader and more continuous distribution than previously thought, suggesting that its abundance may have been underestimated.
Ding said the finding is scientifically important not only for assessing potentially resource-rich lunar materials, but also because the distribution of KREEP provides clues to the crystallization of the early lunar magma ocean, the thickness of the lunar crust and the moon's internal thermal evolution.
The map's colors also carry geological meaning. The team follows a principle of "lighter for younger, darker for older": relatively young Copernican impact materials are depicted in bright pale yellow, ancient Aitkenian impact materials in deep purplish red, while mare basalts are represented in varying shades of blue.
"The color system combines the logic of geological evolution with elements of traditional Chinese color aesthetics, giving China's lunar geological maps a distinctive scientific and visual identity," Ding said.
Beyond basic science, the researchers said the new geological map can serve as a strategic base map for China's future lunar exploration, including subsequent Chang'e missions and planning related to the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).
A refined geological chronology can help scientists understand the age and modification history of candidate regions; updated rock mapping can identify areas of particular scientific or resource interest; and the global-scale representation allows mission planners to compare broad regions before moving to higher-resolution site studies.
Asked whether the map could directly support the Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8 missions, Jin stressed that its role is primarily strategic rather than tactical.
"The 1:5,000,000 geological map is a global-scale foundational map. It can be used for broad comparisons of potential landing regions and for evaluating their overall geological context," Jin said. "Precise landing-site selection and detailed rover-route planning, however, require higher-resolution regional geological maps. The two work together, moving progressively from the global scale to finer regional scales."
The scientists also stressed that the map is intended to be shared with the international scientific community. Digital versions are expected to be released through professional publications and public scientific databases, while the standardized symbols and mapping rules could facilitate exchanges with other planetary geological mapping systems.
Ding said significant room remains for international cooperation, from comparing and translating different geological mapping standards to joint studies of the evolution of the lunar far side and the origin of the ancient South Pole-Aitken Basin.
"China possesses unique exploration data and returned lunar samples, which provide a strong foundation for cooperation," Ding said, adding that planetary science, scientific training and deep-space exploration technologies all offer potential areas for expanded exchanges.
"A precise geological map of the moon is an important foundation for humanity to explore deep space and understand the universe," Jin said.
The latest map, he noted, is not an endpoint. As China proceeds with subsequent lunar exploration missions and acquires new observations and samples, the geological picture of the Moon will continue to be refined.
"Future exploration will allow us to keep updating our understanding of lunar geology," Jin said. "At the same time, we hope these results can contribute to broader international scientific cooperation and to humanity's exploration of the moon."
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