More than ayear after landingon the far side of the moon , China ’s Chang’E-4 ( CE-4 ) space vehicle continues to unravel lunar secret , this time allowing astronomers a glimpse 40 meters ( 130 infantry ) below the surface of the moon in an attempt to understand its geological computer architecture .
On January 3 , 2019 , CE-4 landed on the eastern floor of the Van Kármán crater , near the Moon ’s south pole , making it the first spacecraft to successfullytouch downon the far side of the lunation . Just two years after down , its rover Yutu-2 captured the first high - resolution images of what the lunation looks like below its aerofoil , providing direct measurements of thickness and the lunar national architecture . Those images are now put out in the journalScience Advances .
Yutu-2 uses Lunar Penetrating Radar to investigate underground while it roam , sending radio signals deep into the airfoil of the moonshine at a oftenness of 500 megacycle – three sentence stronger than previous attempts reached by CE-4 ’s herald , CE-3 . Radar images combined with tomographic data point and quantitative analysis of the subsurface paint an image of how the Sun Myung Moon is made up . ( Spoiler alert : it ’s not cheese . )
" We find that the signal penetration at the CE-4 website is much greater than that measured by the previous spacecraft , Chang’E-3 , at its skinny - side landing place website , " said field of study writer LI Chunlai , a research prof and deputy conductor - general of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences , in astatement . “ The subsurface at the CE-4 landing site is much more transparent to radio waves , and this qualitative observation suggest a totally unlike geologic context for the two landing place sites . "
Though it is unmanageable to place specific geologic social system and build a timeline of events , the research worker are able to find that the lunar month is made of extremely holey granulose material with boulders of change sizes plant within . Such constitution is the effect of a turbulent other coltsfoot when meteoroid and other object struck the moon , ejecting encroachment materials to other area to make unlike storey of fabric within . Last descent , the scouter pick up a “ colloidal gel - alike ” substance with “ cryptical shininess ” on the far side of the moon that turned out to be impact glasscreatedwhen meteors or other space objects impacted the moon ’s airfoil .
" This oeuvre shows the extensive use of the LPR could greatly improve our understanding of the history of lunar impact and volcanism and could shed new visible radiation on the comprehension of the geological evolution of the Moon ’s far side , ” said Li .
