China Moon Rover Will Investigate Cube Shaped Mystery

The Yutu-2 rover is on a roll. It’s been exploring the far side of the moon since early 2019 as part of China’s Chang’e-4 lunar lander mission. It now has its eyes set on a strange-looking Cube-shaped object it spotted in the distance.

Andrew Jones, a journalist who covers the Chinese space program for SpaceNews and Space.com, highlighted a new rover update in a series of tweets Friday. The nickname for the Cube-shaped object translates to “mystery house.” The rover team is planning to drive over and get a closer look at the object.

Yutu-2 is the intriguing discovery of a “gel-like” substance inside a crater in 2019. That substance turned out to be glassy-looking rock. Stanley Kubrick never planted a monolith on the real moon, and those metal sculptures that were once all the rage on Earth haven’t made the trek across space.

Yutu-2’s view of the Cube is fuzzy and far-off, so the object’s true nature should become clearer as the rover gets closer. The most likely explanation is a boulder. This part of the moon is pockmarked with impact craters, which can feature quite a bit of chunky debris.Yutu-2 has already traveled 2,756 feet (840 meters) across the moon. Its next jaunt should shed some light on the mystery house.