Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2019 January 5
                                      [2]
                            Yutu 2 on the Farside
            Image Credit: Chinese National Space Administration [3]

Explanation: On January 3 [4] , the Chinese Chang'e-4 spacecraft made the
first successful landing on the Moon's farside [5] . Taken by a camera on
board the lander, this image is [6] from the landing site inside Von Karman
crater. It shows the desksized, six-wheeled Yutu 2 [7] (Jade Rabbit 2) rover
as it rolled down lander ramps and across the surface near local sunrise and
the start of the two week long lunar day. Ripe for exploration, Von Karman
crater [8] itself is 186 kilometers in diameter. It lies within [9] the Moon's
old and deep South Pole-Aitken impact basin with some of the most ancient and
least understood lunar terrains. To bridge communications from the normally
hidden [10] hemisphere of the Moon, China launched a relay satellite, Queqiao
[11] , in May of 2018 in to an orbit beyond the lunar farside.

                     Tomorrow's picture: stars and lasers

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [23] (MTU [24] ) & Jerry Bonnell [25]
                                  (UMCP [26] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [27] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [28]
              A service of: ASD [29]  at NASA [30]  / GSFC [31]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [32]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1901/Jan3yutu2CNSA.jpg
  [3] http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/
  [4] https://earthsky.org/space/
china-change-4-spacecraft-landing-moon-far-side
  [5] ap161230.html
  [6] http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n6759533/c6805052/cont...
  [7] ap131216.html
  [8] http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/1082
  [9] http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/CosmoSparks/Sept18... Moon-VonKarmanCrater.html
  [10] ap001021.html
  [11] https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/ display.action?id=QUEQIAO
  [12] ap190104.html
  [13] archivepix.html
  [14] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [15] lib/aptree.html
  [16] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apo...
  [17] calendar/allyears.html
  [18] /apod.rss
  [19] lib/edlinks.html
  [20] lib/about_apod.html
  [21] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?dat...
  [22] ap190106.html
  [23] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [24] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [25] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnel...
  [26] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [27] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [28] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Priv...
  [29] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [30] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [31] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [32] http://www.mtu.edu/

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