A Chinese moon rover captured images of the other side of the moon showing a long ‘milestone’ rock on the moon’s surface.
Yutu 2 saw the sharp structure protrude from the ground after waking up from a 14-day hiatus during the dangerously cold moonlit night.
Scientists believe the unusual rock may have been formed after the effects of multiple rocks blew off the surface until the sharp shape was left behind.
However, further analysis is needed to determine where it definitely came from and the China National Space Administration Administration (CNSA) plans to use the rover’s imaging capabilities to study its make-up.
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A Chinese moon rover captured images of the other side of the moon showing a long ‘milestone’ rock on the moon’s surface. Yutu 2 saw the sharp structure protrude from the ground after waking up from a 14-day hiatus during the dangerously cold moonlit night
China Chang’e-4 landed on the moon in January 2019 and was the first ever to land on the other side of the moon.
On the way is the ruler and rover Yutu 2, which has retrieved images from the lunar surface that people have never seen before.
The objectives of the lawyer and the rover include the analysis of chemical differences between the lunar side of the Earth and the target range of the mission.
Landlord Chang’e-4 and rover Yutu 2 recently spent 14 days sleeping through the lunar night to protect machines from freezing – temperatures can reach -310 degrees Fahrenheit.
Scientists believe that the unusual rock may have been formed after the impact of several rocks blowing off the surface until the sharp shape was left.
However, more analysis is needed to find out where it definitely came from and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) plans to use the rover’s imaging capabilities to study its make-up
After returning on February 6, the rover continued to explore the other side and that’s when he spotted the rare stalagmite.
CNSA has not yet found dimensions of the rock, but plans to study it with a Visible and Near-infrared Image Spectrometer (VNIS) instrument at Yutu 2 in hopes of finding out its shape and size.
Dan Moriarty, NASA’s Postdoctoral Program Fellow at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, told Space.com: ‘Repetitive impacts, stress from thermal cycling, and other types of weather on the lunar surface would all be likely to be ‘breaking down rocks into more‘ spherical ’-or-less shapes, with enough time. ‘
Moriarty also told Space.com, looking at the sharp shape of the rock and the sound of a ‘ridge’ running along the edge, the rock is said to be geologically young.
It is also believed that the milestone was formed by spallation, which occurs when whole pieces of rock are blown off the nearby surface without gaining the same level of weight. panic and the direct target is falling. ‘
Landlord Chang’e-4 and rover Yutu 2 recently spent 14 days sleeping through the lunar night to protect machines from freezing – temperatures can reach -310 degrees Fahrenheit. After regaining power on February 6, the rover continued to work on exploring the other side and that’s when he saw the strange stalagmite.
The rover has traveled 2,060 feet over the lunar surface since it landed on January 3, 2019.
The Chinese space agency released a gallery of images carved by the rover in January 2020 to mark the one-year anniversary of the craft first landed on the moon.
The images were processed and posted on Twitter by Doug Ellison, who heads the engineering camera team for NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover.
One image of the Chang’e-4 lunar landing gear with the Yutu 2 rover’s waterproof tracks was brought to life in color using solemn computer software.
The images were taken with a Chang’e-4 lander ground camera and the panoramic camera on a Yutu 2 rover.
The data junk measured more than 10GB and included images taken over its first year of operation.
The rover has traveled 2,060 feet over the lunar surface since it landed on January 3, 2019
The Chinese space agency released a gallery of images carved by the rover in January 2020 to mark the one-year anniversary of the craft first landed on the moon. Pictured are the rover’s tracks on the moon’s surface and on the horizon is the surface
The images have been rendered in what appear to be black and white, but are in fact incomplete color images.
Computer programs can be used to extract the true color.
Some of the images include scenes of the Von Karmer pit in which the mission landed.
The largest impact fault in the entire solar system is at eight miles (13 km) deep and 1,600 miles (2,500 km) in diameter.
The far side of the moon – called the dark side – actually receives as much light as the nearby side but always looks away from the Earth.
This is because the moon is rapidly locked to Earth, turning at the same rate that it moves around our planet, so the other side – or the ‘dark side’ of our planet – is not visible.
The Chang’e-4 lunar test mission – named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology – was launched in December last year from the southwestern Xichang launch center.
This is the second Chinese probe to land on the moon, following the Yutu rover mission in 2013.