Amazon Quiz: Yutu-2 is the robotic lunar rover of which country’s mission to the Moon?
Japan
Kazakhstan
China
North Korea
Answer: China
China lunar rover Yutu-2 raked some excitement for a while when it seemed that it had found signs of alien life on the moon. Later, it turned out that what was mistaken for a monolith was actually just a small boulder seeming squarish from a distance.
However, that does not mean that the rover which has spent three years on the moon’s far side hasn’t made some significant discoveries.
The rover has relayed data about the subsurface structure of the far side of the moon as well as details of the lunar regolith that can only be learned by stirring up the dirt physically.
It showed that the far side of the moon is relatively flat and free of rocks. The rover crawled for more than 2,700 feet across the 110-mile diameter Von Kármán impact crater within the Aitken Basin at the Moon’s southern polar region, within the first 25 lunar days. As per the story authors, “Rocks along the traverse route are relatively rare in comparison with those scattered around the [Yutu-1] landing site”.
The far side of the moon also turns out to be strewn with craters, the rover came across 88 impact craters within 50 meters, and even discovered a “dark greenish, glistening material” at the base of one. This turned out to be gel-like material, which might have originated from two rocks that melted together in the heat of impact.
Amazon Quiz: Who is the first Black woman to appear on the US quarter?
