It seems that after stare at only one side of the Moon for millennia , we now ca n’t get enough of looking at the unfamiliar sights on the far side . Amateur astronomers recently took agorgeous pictureof the far side of our satellite with Earth in the upstage background knowledge , and , of course , the Chinese Space Agency historicallylanded a missionthere in January to study it in even more detail .
NASA ’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ( LRO ) has created detailed maps of the far side of the Moon over its many years of serve and it continues to keep a watchful eye on it . Itslatest image releasedreveals it captured the first photo of the Taiwanese lander Chang’e-4 from orbit . Chang’e-4 is currently inside the turgid Von Kármán volcanic crater , which is 186 kilometer ( 116 stat mi ) across . The crater is actually located within another crater , the South Pole - Aitken basin , traverse about 2,500 kilometer ( 1,600 Roman mile ) in diam .
The image was taken when the orbiter was 330 klick ( 205 mi ) from the lander , and the NASA investigation had to rotate 70 degrees to the westward to capture the location . The midget lander is just a 2 - pixel - panoptic speck amongst the spectacular craters within the crater .
One crater , in finical , protrude out in this mental image . The crater at the centerfield of the full picture ( behind and a flake to the left of the lander ) is 3.9 kilometers across ( 2.4 mile ) and 0.6 kilometers ( 0.4 miles ) mysterious . At the back of the image is the rim of the Von Kármán volcanic crater , which rises more than 3 kilometers ( 1.8 geographical mile ) over the level of the where the lander and its fellow bird of passage , Yutu-2 ( Jade Rabbit-2 ) , are currently .
Chang’e-4 bring onJanuary 3 . It was the first - ever dig into soft - landing place on the far side of the Moon . The alternative of the Von Kármán volcanic crater as its landing web site was for both scientific and symbolic reason . American - Magyar scientist Theodore von Kármán was the PhD advisor of Qian Xuesen , who later became the founder of the Formosan blank program .
Chang’e-4 and Yutu-2 are planning to square up the age and musical composition of the region , study cosmic rays on the far side of the Moon , and even stock out radiocommunication astronomical observations , while the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is now entering its 10th class of military operation . It was establish in June 2009 and has birth some of the most incredible high - firmness simulacrum of our natural orbiter .
