China moon rover to investigate cube-shaped 'mystery house' object

There's something interesting on the far side of the moon.

Amanda Kooser

Dec. 3, 2021 10:08 a.m. PT

The Yutu-2 rover is on a roll. It's been exploring the far side of the moon since early 2019, as part of China's Chang'e-4 lunar lander mission. It now has its eyes set on a strange-looking cube-shaped object it spotted in the distance.

Andrew Jones, a journalist who covers the Chinese space program for SpaceNews and Space.com, highlighted a new rover update in a series of tweets Friday. The nickname for the cube-shaped object translates to "mystery house."

Ah. We have an update from Yutu-2 on the lunar far side, including an image of a cubic shape on the northern horizon ~80m away from the rover in Von Kármán crater. Referred to as "神秘小屋" ("mystery house"), the next 2-3 lunar days will be spent getting closer to check it out. pic.twitter.com/LWPZoWN05I

— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) December 3, 2021

The rover team is planning to drive over and get a closer look at the object.

As with Yutu-2's intriguing discovery of a "gel-like" substance inside a crater in 2019, don't get too excited for aliens. That substance turned out to be glassy-looking rock. And as far as I know, Stanley Kubrick never planted a monolith on the moon, and those metal sculptures that were once all the rage on Earth haven't made the trek across space.

Yutu-2's view of the cube is fuzzy and far-off, so the object's true nature should become clearer as the rover gets closer. The most likely explanation is a boulder. This part of the moon is pockmarked with impact craters, which can feature quite a bit of chunky debris.

The Chang'e-4 mission represents the first surface exploration of the far side of the moon. The rover's work has helped scientists learn about what's happening with the geology under the lunar surface.

Don't look to Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for scientific information about the lunar far side. China's rover is solar-powered, so it periodically goes into hibernation when it's dark and then gets back to work when the sun is out in the Von Karman crater.

According China Daily, Yutu-2 has already traveled 2,756 feet (840 meters) across the moon. Its next jaunt should shed some light on the "mystery house."

https://www.cnet.com/news/china-moon-rover-to-investigate-cube-shaped-mystery-house-object/

Dahboo77

China's Moon Rover Investigating Large Cube-Shaped 'Mystery House' Object

https://youtu.be/28bUcCHk8O8

Wild Video Shows Stolen School Bus Plowing Through Cars In Brooklyn

December 2, 2021 6:11pm Updated

Wild video shows a stolen school bus barreling into a number of parked cars in Brooklyn as cops chase the driver down Thursday afternoon.

The short yellow bus was reported stolen from East Flatbush just after 4:15 p.m. when the driver tracked it to East New York through its GPS, police said.

Video shows NYPD officers scrambling on the street in response to a stolen yellow bus approaching them.

No injuries have been reported from the wild carjacking incident.

The bus thief then turned the street into a demolition derby — smashing into a number of cars before the smoking vehicle stopped at 1738 East New York Ave.

That’s where cops arrested the man.

An onlooker filming the encounter appears to be screaming as the smoldering bus repeatedly rams into a dark-colored van before pushing it down the street.

Another person can be heard yelling, “You all should have been shootin’ that n—–.”

Charges against the bus thief, whose name was not immediately released, were pending Thursday afternoon.

https://nypost.com/2021/12/02/wild-video-shows-stolen-school-bus-plowing-into-parked-cars-in-nyc/

https://youtu.be/KGic840SvTQ

>>15131640