Chinese lunar mission
Mysterious “House on the Moon”: New photos show what’s really behind it
New images show what’s behind the “house” on the moon
© CNSA
An object found on the moon’s surface that has been dubbed a house or shack is actually a rabbit-shaped rock, scientists have now specified.
The Chinese rover Yutu 2 on its lunar mission in December – thanks to its onboard panoramic and infrared cameras – spotted an object on the far side of the moon and approached it for closer examination. At first glance it looked like a small house or a sloping hut. Now the Yutu 2 team has confirmed it’s an oddly shaped rock which they say looks like a small but “lifelike” crouching bunny, the British Daily Mail summarizes.
Yutu 2 on moon mission
The rover Yutu 2 made the world’s first soft landing on the far side of the moon more than three years ago – on January 3, 2019. This is how the first pictures of the object were created. The Yutu 2 team – part of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) – has now published an update of its findings, as reported by the scinexx.de portal on its Facebook page. The “mysterious hut” turned out to be “very small” on closer inspection.
Instead of a house, the rock is more in the shape of a rabbit
© Ourspace/CNSA
The lunar rover discovered the initially angular structure of the structure, which protruded from the ground after waking from a 14-day “sleep” in the dangerously cold moonlit night. This “sleep” state ensures that the energy that drives him is not wasted and he can continue his explorations.
Yutu 2 on the moon since 2019
Back in 2019, just a few months after landing on the moon, Yutu 2 found a mysterious “gel-like” substance that was dark green in color. The following year, the substance was found not to be a gel, but a hard and glassy mineral compound that had been melted and reformed at high heat during an ancient asteroid impact.
Sources: “Daily Mail”, Facebook/scinexx.de, CNSA