China’s Yutu 2 rover has spotted a mystery object on the horizon while working its way across Von Kármán crater on the far side of the moon.
Yutu 2 spotted a cube-shaped object on the horizon to the north and roughly 260 feet (80 meters) away in November during the mission’s 36th lunar day, according to a Yutu 2 diary published by by Our Space, a Chinese language science outreach channel affiliated with the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The Yutu-2 rover is part of the Chinese Chang’e 4 mission to the Moon. It has been exploring the far side of the Moon since 2019.
Andrew Jones, a journalist for Space.com, highlighted the unusual sighting in a series of tweets shared Friday. “Image of a cubic shape on the northern horizon – 80m away from the rover in Von Karman crater,” he wrote. “it’s not an obelisk or aliens, but certainly something to check out,” he added in a follow-up tweet.
Although the discovery has created a buzz on Twitter, the most probable explanation is that the object is a boulder that was excavated upon impact. In 2019, Yutu-2 discovered a “green-tinged gel-like substance” on the Moon which turned out to be rocks – or, more specifically, a rock-like substance that forms when minerals and rocks get fused together.
Team scientists have expressed a strong interest in the object and Yutu 2 is now expected to spend the next 2-3 lunar days (2-3 Earth months) traversing lunar regolith and avoiding craters to get a closer look, so updates can be expected.
The solar-powered Yutu 2 has been traversing the 115-mile-wide (186km) Von Kármán crater ever since it landed on the moon attached to the Chang’e-4 spacecraft on January 3, 2019.
Last month it snapped pictures of a mysterious object 260 ft (80m) away to the north, just on the horizon, according to Our Space, a Chinese language science outreach channel affiliated with the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
