A mysterious object that the Chinese moon rover Jadehase 2 (Yutu 2, 玉兔 二號) discovered a month ago is – unsurprisingly – a simple rock. This emerges from a report and pictures that “Our Space” has now made public. The Chinese portal had already reported the original find. As it is said there, the rover set out after the discovery of the “mysterious hut” and made two-thirds of the route before it was shut down during the 14 earth-day night. He then covered the rest of the way and was now able to send a picture of the stone back to earth. All the speculation in the face of the blurry first picture is taken out of the sails. According to the report, the stone was also baptized “Jade Bunny”.
The rock in front of a crater
(Image: Our Space)
Driving with a long break
“Our Space” is connected to the Chinese space agency and spoke in early December of a “mysterious hut” that Jade Rabbit 2 discovered on the moon. In a photo of the mission, a conspicuous, apparently cubic object could be made out, which protrudes prominently over the horizon. Even then it was obvious that it was a boulder that was the remains of an impact. It is not only because of the lack of atmosphere that it is difficult for us to estimate distances on the moon and thus also the size of the “hut”. At China’s space agency, however, it was already clear that the striking object was about 80 meters away from the rover. He then went on to take a better photo.
Yutu 2 was brought to the moon by the Chang’e 4 probe, both of which were the first probes ever to land on the remote side of the satellite in early 2019. Since then, the rover has been exploring the area at Aitken crater near the south pole of the moon. The mission was considered to be particularly demanding because no direct communication with the instruments is possible from Earth. For this reason, China had positioned the transmission satellite Queqiao (Bridge of Magpies) months beforehand in order to be able to send signals from the radio shadow. In the meantime, the Jade Bunny 2 has long since broken all possible records, with the trip to the “mysterious hut” it has now covered a total of more than 1000 meters on the moon, “Our Space” adds.
(mho)