The landing site of China, on the other side of the Moon, now has a name



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The lunar house of The Chinese LG Chang & # 39; e-4, who landed on the other side of the moon on January 3, now has a name: Statio Tianhe.

Statio means a station or station in Latin and is also used in the official name of the landing site of Apollo 11, Statio Tranquillitatis; Tianhe is an ancient Chinese name for the Milky Way Sky River which is used in a folk tale called "The Cowherd and the Weaver's Daughter". The location is close to the old name Von Kármán Crater.

The International Astronomical Union, which oversees all official names of entities in the space and bodies of the solar system, has unveiled the new landing name of the Chang Mission & # 39; e-4 Today (February 15), as well as the names of four other nearby sites explored by the LG and its Yutu rover 2. One is a mountain that is now called Mons Tai. , after a mountain in China's Shandong Province, just south of Beijing. [Chang’e 4’s Photos from the Moon’s Far Side!]

The other three newly appointed features on the other side are all craters, now known as Zhinyu, hegu and Tianjin, which honor all the Chinese constellations. The first two relate to the same tale from which Tianhe originated: Zhinyu is the name of a fairy in the story and Hegu includes the star Altair, who in China bears the name of cowherd tale.

Chang & # 39; e-4 and his rover, Yutu-2, both have has become dormant for their second glacial lunar night, two weeks long. When the sun rises again in their neighborhood, they should turn back on and resume their activities. scientific explorations on the other side of the moon.

Email Meghan Bartels to [email protected] or follow her @meghanbartels. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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