Chang'e-3 Landing Site Named "Guang Han Gong"

The landing site of China's first moon lander Chang'e-3 has been named "Guang Han Gong" or "Moon Palace", more than two years after the spacecraft made a successful soft-landing on the moon in December 2013.

Together with three nearby impact craters, the name was approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) announced on Tuesday.

In Chinese mythology, Chang'e is the goddess of the moon while "Guang Han Gong" is the palace that houses Chang'e and her pet Yutu (Jade Rabbit).

The three craters were given the names Zi Wei, Tian Shi and Tai Wei, three constellations in traditional Chinese astrology, according to Liu Jizhong, director of the lunar exploration project of the SASTIND.

The lunar rover Yutu recently found a new type of basaltic rock that could shed light on lunar volcanism, according to an article published by Chinese scientists in the Nature Communications science journal last month.

A total of 22 lunar features have been given Chinese names. The first crater was named Zu Chongzhi after a famous Chinese mathematician in 1961.

Li Chunlai, a member of the naming committee for lunar features, said the coordinates of "Guang Han Gong", with a diameter of 154 meters, are 44.12 degrees north latitude and 19.51 degrees west longitude. The crater, along with other features, is included in the area covered by lunar rover Yutu.
Rita Schulz, chair of the IAU Division F WG Planetary System Nomenclature, said landing sites on the moon can only be officially named when they are the first landing sites for the country's spacecraft.

China Releases Spectacular Moon Images In TRUE HD | The Xenologist

Source:  http://english.cas.cn/newsroom/china_research/201601/t20160106_158480.shtml

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China Releases Spectacular Moon Images In TRUE HD

On Sunday, the China National Space Administration released hundreds of high-resolution, color images of the moon, offering an unprecedented look at our satellite.

Yutu, The Chinese Moon Rover

Yutu, which means Jade Rabbit, first arrived on the moon in December 2013 aboard China’s Chang’e 3 lander. The spacecraft was the first to land there since the Soviets’ Luna 24 mission on Aug. 22, 1976.

Chang'e 3 Lander

Unfortunately, two weeks after it was deployed, Yutu suffered technical difficulties. It’s been unable to move since then, but it has continued to transmit information, including these stunning images.

What made China’s mission especially remarkable was that it was the first soft-landing on the moon in 37 years, since the Russians landed their Luna 24 probe back in 1976.

Self-Portait, of Yutu Chinese Academy of Sciences / China National Space Administration / The Science and Application Center for Moon and Deepspace Exploration

Today, anyone can create a user account on China’s Science and Application Center for Moon and Deepspace Exploration website to download the pictures themselves. The process is a bit cumbersome and the connection to the website is spotty if you’re accessing it outside of China.

Luckily, Emily Lakdawalla from the Planetary Society spent the last week navigating the Chinese database and is currently hosting a suite of China’s lunar images on the Planetary Society Website.

Panoramic View of the Yutu, Taken by Chang'e 3 

Sources:
http://time.com/4202591/moon-photos-true-color/
http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/30/china-just-released-true-color-hd-photos-of-the-moon/#.y0fhdvb:rjzY

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Did The Moon Break Off Or Was A UFO watching the Apollo landing?

Um... is it possible that a bit of the Moon literally broke off or was a UFO watching the Apollo landing? NASA won't say anything. NASA has a lot of explaining to do.

 One of the image they simply can't explain is where where it seems as if "a piece of the Moon" appears to have "broken off" in one of the Apollo 11 images. The images caught the attention of UFOlogists around the globe when YouTube user Streetcap1 uploaded the images to his UFO research channel.

US-based Scott C Waring, editor of UFO Sightings Daily said: "This is a great photo of the moon in high quality. "However there is one odd thing about it. A piece of it is breaking away." He added: "It is possible that aliens have evolved so high, that living longer is the gold of their times.

So to accomplish this, they create ships and buildings that blend into the environment. This could be a ship leaving the surface, and if astronomers see it moving through space, they will believe it to be an asteroid." YouTube user Streetcap1 also said in the video it looked "like a piece of the moon is breaking away".

So what are we looking at in the mysterious Apollo 11 image? Is this really some sort of UFO as Waring and other suggest? Or is it possible that there is a perfectly normal explanation? So far, it seems that the boys and girls at NASA have had a difficult time explaining the image. Luckily there are two images of the same area of the moon taken by the Apollo 11 astronauts.

The two images were taken just moments apart, and mysteriously only one of the images features the mysterious "object." What's your guess? Are we looking at an optical illusion? A piece of the moon breaking off? A UFO? Or another NASA spacecraft? Dwayne Brown from NASA's communications office has not commented about the mysterious Apollo 11 image.

Is NASA avoiding talking about the image because they are unable to explain it? And how likely is it that we are looking at some sort of UFO as many UFO websites suggest?

Whatever the mysterious object is, it certainly is out-of-place, has no explanation and is one of the many NASA images that is most definitely "anomalous." Let us know what you think about the object and NASA's silence.

Source:  http://www.ewao.com/a/1-um-did-a-bit-of-the-moon-break-off-or-was-a-ufo-watching-the-apollo-landing-nasa-wont-say

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