Astronomers have finally solved the puzzle of the "cube" discovered on the Moon's dark side by the Chinese Yutu-2 Rover.
Science Times said Our Space, a scientific website linked with the China National Space Administration (CNSA), has provided a close-up of the irregularly shaped object observed on the Moon's surface.
Yutu-2, a Chinese lunar rover, photographed this mysterious object on the horizon approximately 87 yards (80 meters) away. However, it turned out to be just a tiny pebble on the crate's rim.
Our Space said the solar-powered Yutu, or "Jade Rabbit" in Chinese, will travel 80 meters in two to three lunar days or two to three Earth months.
A man takes pictures of the moon standing in a partial lunar eclipse on August 7, 2017, in Munich, southern Germany.
Yutu-2 Rover's Weird 'Moon Hut' Is Actually an Adorable Rabbit-Shaped Rock
A writer for SpaceNews and Space.com who follows China's space program, Andrew Jones, shared the latest rover team update with a tweet. The update ended this "underwhelming" yet "brilliant" saga, CNet said.
The cube-shaped "hut" turns out to be a little lumpy rock perched on a crater rim. The initial photograph taken by the rover appeared to be considerably larger and more mysterious. The rover was able to uncover the exact nature of the object after getting closer and gaining some perspective.
That's not all, though. It only gets cuter from there. Because of its hunched form, the rock has gained the moniker "jade rabbit," since it resembles a bunny crouching down with a pair of carrots in front of it. Behind the rock's "rump" are several small circular fragments that resemble rabbit excrement, which adds to the pleasure.
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Many people were expecting a massive monument like the Arc de Triomphe or Beijing's tall CCTV headquarters building because of the lack of perspective in the initial photograph, Jones said.
This thing had been compared to/joked to be the CCTV pants building, the Arc de Triomphe, a McDonald's and many more. But with no points of reference and no atmosphere on the Moon, it's very difficult to get any sense of distance or scale (that goes for astronauts too). pic.twitter.com/b07PbaINMV
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) January 7, 2022
Here's What Yutu-2 Will Do Next
Since its deployment in January 2019, the robotic rover has been working at the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin.
The mission was considered a "historic first." Wion News said no other country had ever landed on the moon's far side before.
The moon is tidally locked to Earth, which means it rotates at the same rate it orbits our planet. As a result, much of its "dark side" is never visible from Earth.
Live Science said Yutu 2 will now resume its exploration of the 186-kilometer (115-mile) wide Von Kármán crater, now that the rabbit rock has been cataloged.
Since January 2019, when the Chang'e 4 spacecraft carried it to the lunar surface in the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, the rover has been investigating the area.
The rover has been exploring the moon's surface for the longest time. It has analyzed a strange-colored gel-like material found in a crater and probed the porous soil that covers at least the top 130 feet (40 meters) of the moon's surface. According to a 2020 study obtained by LiveScience, it was melted-together rock created by a long-ago meteorite strike.
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