A curious cube-like object photographed on the far side of the moon by China鈥檚 Yutu 2 lunar rover has been identified. It鈥檚 just a rock.
Capturing the internet鈥檚 curiosity in December, a hazy image of the object was first released by , a Chinese-language blog affiliated with the China National Space Administration.
Our Space dubbed it the 鈥渕ysterious hut.鈥� Yutu 2, which means 鈥淛ade Rabbit,鈥� slowly navigated around rugged craters to reach the object. The nearly 60-metre journey took about a month.
鈥淎 lifelike rabbit came into view,鈥� Our Space wrote in . 鈥淭he scattered stones in front of the 鈥楯ade Rabbit鈥� looked like a carrot, and the round stone beads behind the 鈥楯ade Rabbit鈥� looked like the product of the 鈥楯ade Rabbit鈥� after a meal.鈥�
In other words, the imaginative folks at Our Space likened a bunch of ordinary moon rocks to the rover鈥檚 floppy-eared namesake, its dinner and the aftermath. Dashing hopes of alien monoliths, it was no strange trip on the far side of the moon.
Yutu 2 is the first lunar rover to explore the moon鈥檚 so-called dark side, which gets plenty of sunlight but largely can鈥檛 be seen from earth. The rover has covered just over 1,000 metres of terrain since landing in Jan. 2019.
Orbiting Mars in 1976, the Viking 1 spacecraft captured what appeared to be a human-like face on the Martian surface. Later photos revealed a rock formation. For those hoping to find traces of life in our galaxy, NASA鈥檚 new James Webb Space Telescope, launched in Dec. 2021, is expected to provide unprecedented data about planets circling other stars. 鈥�
