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China's Chang'e-4 probe resumes work for 24th lunar day

(Xinhua)    09:58, November 10, 2020

BEIJING, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- The lander and rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have resumed work for the 24th lunar day on the far side of the moon.

The lander woke up at 3:12 a.m. Tuesday, Beijing Time, and the rover Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2, woke up at 10:17 a.m. Monday, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.

Landing on the moon on Jan. 3, 2019, the Chang'e-4 probe has survived 677 Earth days on the moon.

A lunar day is equal to 14 days on Earth, and a lunar night is of the same length. The solar-powered probe switches to dormant mode during the lunar night.

During the 24th lunar day, Yutu-2 will move northwest toward the basalt area or the impact craters with high reflectivity.

Yutu-2 will take at least one panoramic photo, and its infrared imaging spectrometer, neutral atom detector and lunar radar will continue to carry out scientific explorations.

Based on data from the Chang'e-4 probe, Chinese scientists have made new discoveries. Through the probe's detection of ejecta, scientists found that the characteristics of mafic components in the South Pole-Aitken basin are similar to remote sensing results.

The mafic components in the soil and boulders around the probe's landing site are mainly clinopyroxene and are consistent with rapid-cooling magmatic systems. The materials at the landing site are probably recrystallized from impact melt settings.

The research provides a scientific basis for understanding mafic anomaly in the South Pole-Aitken basin of the moon.

The research was published in the journal Science China Information Sciences.

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Web editor: Wen Ying, Bianji)

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