Astronomy Picture of the Day—20190220

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

2019 February 20

Yutu2 on the Farside

ImageCredit: Chinese National Space Administration

Explanation:On January 3, the Chinese Chang'e-4 spacecraft made the first successfullanding on the Moon's farside. Taken by a camera on board the lander, thisimage is from the landing site inside Von Karman crater. It shows thedesk-sized, six-wheeled Yutu 2 (Jade Rabbit 2) rover as it rolled down landerramps and across the surface near local sunrise and the start of the two weeklong lunar day. Ripe for exploration, Von Karman crater itself is 186kilometers in diameter. It lies within the Moon's old and deep SouthPole-Aitken impact basin with some of the most ancient and least understoodlunar terrains. To bridge communications from the normally hidden hemisphere ofthe Moon, China launched a relay satellite, Queqiao, in May of 2018 in to anorbit beyond the lunar farside.

月球背面的玉兔2号

解释：1月3日，中国的嫦娥4号飞船成功登陆月球背面。登陆器上搭载的相机拍摄的这幅影像来自冯卡门陨石坑内部的登陆点。它显示出课桌大小的六轮玉兔2号巡视器滚下登陆器的活动梯，并穿越月表，当时正接近当地的日出时间，也是2周长的月球白天开始的时候。冯卡门陨石坑本身的直径为186公里，它位于月球古老而深邃的南极艾特肯撞击盆地内部，具有最古老、最没有被了解的月球地形。为了和通常隐藏的月球背面建立通信联系，中国在2018年5月发射了一颗中继卫星“鹊桥”进入月球背面以远的轨道上。