Shiny!
China’s Yutu-2 lunar lander just sent back new images of a strange substance it found near a small crater on the far side of the Moon.
Last month, the team behind the lunar rover claimed it had found a “colored mysterious substance” as described in the rover’s diary, which claimed that the material’s “shape and color is significantly different from the surrounding lunar soil.”
A new post released by the team over the weekend shows new images of the strange substance — though it’s unfortunately located in the middle of a crater, making it difficult to reach.
The images were taken by the rover’s obstacle-avoidance camera, which makes sure the rover doesn’t bump into anything. The red and green shapes in the image above are most likely artifacts of the rover’s Visible and Near-Infrared Spectrometer, Space.com reports.
Lunar Glass
So what is it? The best guess we have so far is that it’s a piece of lunar glass that formed during a meteor impact.
It’s likely that the Chinese researchers will release more images and spectrometer readings of the mysterious substance in the future. It will have to — at the very least — wait for the Sun to rise again to continue its investigation. And that’s roughly a week from now.
READ MORE: China’s Lunar Rover Scopes Out Weird Substance on Far Side of the Moon (Photos) [Space.com]
More on the shiny rock: China Claims Its Moon Rover Found a Colorful “Gel-Like” Substance