What important things were discovered on the moon landing?

Answer 1

What the Moon was really like, what it is actually made of. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that scientists, for the first time, had access to rocks that were not from Earth, to compare Earth rocks to. You can learn a lot from comparing different things, not so much by comparing same things. And the Moon rocks, with no water or air to corrode them, were essentially identical to how they were billions of years earlier. From this a lot could be learned about how the Solar System was formed.

The instruments left behind told us of moonquakes and temperatures and radiation background (negligible for the short period of time the Apollo astronauts were in space).

The solar wind experiment was the first time actual material from the Sun itself was captured for analysis.

And one of the Apollo missions carried a small portable "automatic observatory". It was shielded from the sunlight that kept standard photos from showing stars, and so was able to take nearly 200 pictures of the stars, and Earth, in frequencies never seen before, as Earth's atmosphere keeps those frequencies from reaching Earth-based telescopes. These then-unique pictures have been compared to later space telescope images from various countries, and found to match. So much for the "Apollo never went to the Moon" nonsense-- the information needed to fake those star pictures did not exist until *after* those pictures were returned to Earth!

The Apollo astronauts left behind two reflectors. Scientists can fire lasers at them to determine precisely how far away the Moon is, how much it is moving away from the Earth (about 8 feet since Apollo's day!). And scientists in different places on the Earth can fire lasers at them, and determine how much Earth's continents are moving and flexing, a key to understanding Earth's geology and perhaps, someday, be able to predict quakes.

Answer 2

During the moon landing, important discoveries included the existence of lunar soil and rocks different from Earth's, evidence of water on the moon, and seismic activity caused by moonquakes. Additionally, the study of moon rocks provided valuable insights into the early history and formation of the moon and the solar system.