What Exactly Is This Newly Discovered Cube-Shaped Object On The Moon?
The moon is tidally locked in its orbit with the Earth, so as we look up in the night sky and view our planet's natural satellite it is the far side of the moon that we always see. It is this lunar far side of the moon, which faces away from Earth, that has enamored the minds and imagination of people and scientists for a very long time. The Soviet Union were the first to travel around the moon with Luna 1 in 1959. NASA soon followed with a series of robotic Ranger and Surveyor spacecraft that eventually made it possible for the first human to walk on the Moon in 1969. NASA has plans on sending humans back to the Moon sometime this decade with its Artemis missions, including the first ever woman. But it is a cubic-shaped object captured in an image from a Chinese lunar rover that has people all abuzz at the moment.
Andrew Jones shared a photo on his Twitter feed recently of the cubed-shaped object sent back from the lunar rover. In the tweet he shares that the object is on the northern horizon some 80m away from the rover.
Jones was quick to follow up his tweet with another explaining that he did not think the object was any type of obelisk or aliens, but was worth the effort for the rover to travel over and find out exactly what the object is. In the tweet, Jones shares another photo from the Chang'e-3 mission taken eight years ago showing large boulders on the Moon's surface as a potential explanation for the cube-shaped object.
Some believe, including NASA, the Moon was more than likely formed after a Mars-sized body collided with Earth and debris from that collision formed into what we now see in our night sky. As of right now, it is also the only other place humans have traveled to and set foot on outside of our own planet.
It is the Moon, in fact, that moderates Earth's wobble on its axis. This provides for the stable climate and tidal rhythm that has helped guide humans for thousands of years. So any new information that we receive from our helpful friend in space is worth noting.
The object in the picture shared by Andrew Jones is more than likely, as he indicated, simply a large rock formation on the moon's surface. Because the image is pixelated as much as it is, it may in fact not be nearly as cube-shaped as it appears in the photo. There have not been any updates since the release of the photo from the Chinese lunar rover that we could find. But rest assured that if anything notable about this arises, we will be sure to share it with you.
Top Image Source: Chinese National Space Agency
