Chang'e-4 Landing Platform Observed by the Yutu-2 Rover
The landing place of the Chinese probe Chang'e-4, which was stranded on the far side of the earth satellite on January 3, now has a name. We present you Statio Tianhe.
“Statio” is the Latin word for station or base. Used in the official name of the landing site of Apollo 11. “Tianhe” is an ancient Chinese designation for the stellar river of the Milky Way. The location is located next to the crater Karman.
The International Astronomical Union, which tracks the names of all objects in space, unveiled a new name on February 15. Also published the names for the four other closest places explored by the Yutu-2 lunar rover. One of them is a mountain called Tai (in honor of the Chinese mountains of Shandong Province south of Beijing). The remaining objects are craters, called Zhinyu, Hegu and Tianjin. All of them belong to the Chinese constellations and myths. Chang'e-4 and the Yutu-2 rover remained in hibernation during a frosty two-weekly moonlit night. They are activated and continue research when the day period returns on the far side of the moon.
