China's Yutu 2 rover discovers 'unusual' shard-shaped rock on unexplored far side of moon

In one of the most important discoveries of its mission, China’s Yutu 2 Rover has found an ‘unusual’ shard on the unexplored far side of the moon. Returning back to exploring the lunar surface, the rover reportedly found a shard shaped rock which is now named “milestone” by the team. The finding was published by Our Space, a Chinese language science outreach channel affiliated with the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

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_{Image: CNSA}

Yutu-2 is a robotic lunar rover that formed part of the Chinese Chang'e 4 mission to the Moon. It was launched on 7 December 2018, 18:23 UTC. It entered lunar orbit on 12 December 2018, before making the first-ever soft landing on the Moon's far side on 3 January 2019, and is currently operational as the first lunar rover on the far side.

'Requires inspection' 

In the aftermath of the discovery, the CNSA mission scientists announced the elongated rock required closer inspection. The lunar anomaly has also triggered huge interest amongst the scientific community. Speaking to Space. Com, Dr Dan Moriarty, NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at the Goddard Space Flight Center opined that the rock seems to have shard-like shape and is sticking out of the ground adding that it was “definitely unusual”.

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Meanwhile, in other development, Chang’e-5 capsule bringing regolith from the lunar surface has begun its journey for Earth. As per China National Space Administration (CNSA), the Chang’e-5 spacecraft left the moon's orbit in the wee hours of December 13 by activating its four engines for about 22 minutes and is expected to land in China’s inner Mongolia region after three days. As per astronomers, Change-5 is expected to bring back an estimated amount of 2 kilograms of lunar rock to earth.

Chang'e-5 probe, comprising an orbiter, a lander, an ascender, and a returner, was launched on November 24, and its lander-ascender combination touched down on the north of the Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon on December 1. If successful, this would mark the first spacecraft to bring lunar regolith since Soviet’s Union’s Luna 24 probe in 1976.