In one of the most significant discoveries of its mission, the Chinese probe Yutu-2 found an “unusual” rock on the far side of the moon.
The Yutu-2 is a robotic vehicle that is part of the Chinese mission Chang’e 4. It launched on December 7, 2018 and entered lunar orbit five days later, before playing the lead role in the first landing on the moon on the far side of our satellite. Normal on January 3, 2019.
Along with the Chang’e 4 lander, Yutu-2 resumed its activities on February 6 after falling asleep during the severe cold on the moon night, according to Chinese state media Xinhua. On the previous lunar day, the probe encountered a strange type of rock that the spacecraft’s leadership team had begun calling a “milestone”.
According to the report Published in Our Space, The science communication channel of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the mission researchers agreed with the team that the object deserves to be examined.
CNSA has not yet disclosed measurements of the rocks, but plans to analyze them with the Yutu-2 Visual Imaging and Near Infrared Spectrometer (VNIS) instrument in hopes of accurately determining their composition and size.
A young geologist
The lunar discovery has already sparked great interest among the scientific community. Are talking With the Space.com portalDan Moriarty, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, described the tall rocks jutting out from Earth as “definitely unusual.”
The expert believes that both its tapered shape and the pronounced “outcrop” that extends near the edge of the rock seem to indicate that the formation is geologically recent and that it was created after repeated meteorite impacts.
Moriarty explained that “the repetitive effects, pressures from thermal cycles, and other forms of weathering on the surface of the moon tend to divide rocks into more or less spherical shapes, given adequate time.” “Think of how stony beaches have been eroded into smooth, rounded shapes over time due to the repeated thrust of the waves.”
OurSpace, Space.com, Rt, Cnsa.
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