Insert next confounding headline: BONG!
China is set to send their space rover to investigate a mystery house spotted on the moon. Read it as many times you like, that’s still what it said.
That’s right, journalist Andrew Jones has been chronicling Chang’e-4 lunar mission since 2019 and this past Friday he tweeted how the Yutu-2 lunar probe had spotted a “cubic shape” around 80 metres away from a crater it was roaming.
Ah. We have an update from Yutu-2 on the lunar far side, including an image of a cubic shape on the northern horizon ~80m away from the rover in Von Kármán crater. Referred to as "神秘小屋" ("mystery house"), the next 2-3 lunar days will be spent getting closer to check it out. pic.twitter.com/LWPZoWN05I
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) December 3, 2021
As you can see, while he admitted that it likely isn’t an “obelisk or aliens”, having previously mistaken strange “gel-like substances” and “shards” for nothing more than rocks, he did say that it’s “certainly something to check out”.
Below you can see that large boulders and outcrops of rock often resemble noticeable structures from a distance but we’re still going to keep the faith that it’s something cool and, you know, not just more rocks.
The drive diary containing the image explains how the rover and drive team carefully navigated between craters, as it makes its way northwest from its landing site and towards a distant basaltic region of interest to team scientists. https://t.co/nOiICKBZvM pic.twitter.com/qI49WwMSLV
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) December 3, 2021
Though there isn’t much more detail on whether the ‘mystery house’ is actually anything of note, Jones went on to discuss Yutu-2’s journey across the moon, from its “soft landing” in January 2019 to its 37th lunar day.
As the thread goes on, you can also see the map tracking the course of its two-year-plus journey:
Here's a fantastic map of Yutu-2's driving across the 36 completed lunar days from Phil Stooke. It's coming up to three years on the Moon and Yutu-2 is still moving well. pic.twitter.com/JxflYLYgLb
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) December 3, 2021
As we say, chances are it’s likely nothing – but the excitable and imaginative little kid in us still wants to hope it really is a mystery house and there’s something in it. It’s all we want for Christmas.
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