Chinese spacecraft successfully lands on moon’s far side and sends pictures back home

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https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/chinese-spacraft-successfully-lands-moons-far-side-and-sends-pictures-back-home

Source:  By Dennis Normile, Science Magazine.

Excerpt: China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft successfully landed on the far side of the moon this morning Beijing time, accomplishing a worldwide first in lunar exploration. China’s state media confirmed that touchdown occurred at 10:26 a.m. local time; later in the day, the China National Space Administration released the first close-ups of the surface of the far side, taken by Chang’e-4 after it landed. ...Chang’e-4 was launched on 8 December 2018 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province. The landing site is in the Von Kármán crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin. The basin was likely formed by a giant asteroid impact that might have brought material from the moon's upper mantle to the surface; studying samples taken there might offer scientists the chance to learn more about the composition of the body's interior. The moon’s far side has a much thicker, older crust and is pockmarked by more and deeper craters than the near side, where large dark plains called maria, formed by ancient lava flows, have erased much of the cratering. Chang’e-4’s observations could give clues to the processes behind the differences....
See also
2018-0102. The Far Side of the Moon: What China and the World Hope to Find. By Shannon Hall, New York Times [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/science/far-side-moon.html]
2019-01-02. ‘New Chapter’ in Space Exploration as China Reaches Far Side of the Moon. By Steven Lee Myers and Zoe Mou, The New York Times. [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/world/asia/china-change-4-moon.html]
2019-01-03. Chang’e-4 Lands on the Moon. By Jonathan Corum, The New York Times. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/03/science/china-change-4-moon-landing.html]
2019-01-04. Lander Gives First Look at Moon’s Farside, by Kimberly M. S. Cartier Eos/AGU [https://eos.org/articles/lander-gives-first-look-at-moons-farside]


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