China has released
photos of the dark side of the moon from its successful mission to become the
first country to land a spacecraft on the moon's far side. Photos shared by
China's National Space Administration show close-ups of the lunar
surface captured in what was both a first in history and a win for China in its
efforts to compete with the US and Russia in space exploration.
The images were
captured by cameras on China's Chang'e 4 lunar probe, which landed on the moon
at 10:26 a.m. on Thursday, according to CNSA. This image was taken on the south
side of the landing site, CNSA said.
China's Chang'e 4 captured a close-up photo of the dark side of the moon.
China's National Space Administration
CNSA also shared
an image of the moon's surface after the landing.
This image was taken after the landing of the lunar probe.
China's National Space Administration
China became the
third country in the world to "soft-land" — land without damage — on
the moon in 2013. But it has now become the first country to land on its dark
side, a big step in President Xi Jinping's aims to make China a powerhouse of
space exploration.
The soft landing
is different from an "impact" — in which an object smashes into the
surface at speed. The first human-made object to hit the dark side of the moon
was NASA's Ranger 4 craft in 1964, which crashed after a system failure.
Though the region
is called the dark side of the moon, it is not actually deprived of light. It
is called "dark" because humans know much less about it than the side
that faces Earth. The Chang'e 4's objective is to learn more about this part of
the moon, including studying its mineral composition and the structure of its
surface, CNSA said.
The agency also
said the reduced radio signals from earth would allow scientists to study the
sun, other planets, and the origin of stars.
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