Now, with China's Yutu-2 Lunar rover, as part of their
Chang'e 4 mission, another curiosity has been discovered,
this time on the far side of the Moon (above).
Yutu-2 is in the fortunate position of being capable of
getting closer to the feature. Assuming it will be directed
there, it has been stated that it could take 2-3 months, but
that could mean we will have an image showing this thing at
twice the size in a month's time.
I suspect the thing will be explained away; perhaps it's
just a large rock perched on the edge of the crater Yutu-2
is in, perhaps someone in the know will point out it's a
lost probe/lander from a previous mission (such as Soviet or
NASA - although that would be pretty cool to see).
The object has so far been verified by NASA's Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) (below).
Orbital view from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
of the Chang’e 4 lander (in square) and the ‘mystery hut’
object (arrow)
on the edge of a crater about 260 feet (80 meters) away.
From
the image above (click to enlarge), it is apparent to me
that the object is smaller than the Yutu-2 rover itself
(right), which is only 1.0 m tall and 1.5 m at its widest
point.
More info and sources [link].
|