Chinese rover Yutu 2 finds long ‘milestone’ rock on the other side of the moon

The Chinese lunar rover has captured images from across the moon that show an elongated “ milestone ” rock on the lunar surface.

Yutu 2 spotted the sharp structure sticking out of the ground after waking up from 14 days of sleep during the dangerously cold lunar night.

Scientists believe the unusual rock may have formed after multiple impacts that blew the rock off the surface until the sharp formation was left behind.

However, more analysis is needed to determine its exact origins, and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) plans to use the rover’s imaging capabilities to probe its makeup.

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The Chinese Chang’e-4 landed on the moon in January 2019 and was the first to land on the other side of the moon.

Along the way is the Yutu 2 lander and rover, which have since released images of the lunar surface that humans have never seen before.

The objectives of the lander and the rover include analyzing the chemical differences between the face of the Earth of the Moon and the target area of ​​the mission.

The Chang’e-4 lander and the Yutu 2 rover recently spent 14 days in hibernation during the long lunar night to protect the mechanisms from freezing – temperatures can reach -310 degrees Fahrenheit.

After powering up on February 6, the rover continued its exploration work on the other side and it was then that it spotted the unusual stalagmite.

CNSA has yet to reveal the rock’s measurements, but plans to analyze it with the Yutu 2 Visible and Near Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (VNIS) instrument in hopes of discovering its composition and size. .

Dan Moriarty, NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., Told Space.com: “ Repeated impacts, stress from thermal cycling and other forms of weathering on the surface lunar would all tend to decompose rocks into more – or less “spherical” shapes, with sufficient time.

Moriarty also told Space.com that looking at the sharp shape of the rock and the pronounced “ ridge ” along the rim, it is assumed that the rock is geologically young.

He also believes the milestone was created by spallation, which occurs when “intact fragments of rock are blown from the nearby surface without experiencing the same degree of shock pressure that the immediate target experiences.”

The rover has traveled 2,060 feet on the lunar surface since it landed on January 3, 2019.

The Chinese space agency released a gallery of images taken by the rover in January 2020 to mark the first anniversary of the craft’s arrival on the moon.

Doug Ellison, who leads the engineering camera team for the Curiosity Mars Rover at NASA, processed the images and posted them on Twitter.

An image of the Chang’e-4 lunar lander with the pristine traces of the Yutu 2 rover was colored using sophisticated computer software.

The images were taken by the field camera of the Chang’e-4 lander and the panoramic camera of the Yutu 2 rover.

The data dump measured over 10 GB and includes images taken during its first year of operation.

The images were returned in what appears to be black and white, but they are in fact incomplete color images.

Computer programs can be used to extract the true coloring.

Some of the images feature views of the Von Karmer Crater where the mission landed.

It is the largest impact crater in the entire solar system at 13 km deep and 2,500 km in diameter.

The far side of the moon – colloquially known as the dark side – actually receives as much light as the near side, but is still facing the Earth.

This is because the moon is locked to Earth, spinning at the same speed as it orbits our planet, so the far side – or the “dark side” – is never visible from our planet.

The Chang’e-4 lunar probe mission – named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology – was launched last December from the southwest Xichang launch center.

It is the second Chinese probe to land on the moon, after the Yutu rover mission in 2013.