Chang'e 3 moon shots
February 1, 2016 6:02 PM Subscribe
The China National Space Administration released all of the images from their Chang'e 3 moon landing mission (previously), including hundreds of amazing true color, HD photographs. Some 35 GB of datasets, including photographs of and by the Yutu rover have been difficult to retrieve outside of China and have been mirrored by Emily Lakdawalla at planetary.org.
Oh please. Everyone knows Danny Pang's 2015 Chinese horror masterpiece The Strange House is a veiled reference to his being hired by The PLA to shoot fake video of the 2013 "landing."
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 6:26 PM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 6:26 PM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
Feel free to post the above comment in the planetary.org comments to truly fuck with the Moon Truthers Netflix playlists.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 6:28 PM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 6:28 PM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
Then again, I didn't hear anything about this "moon landing" when it was supposed to have happened, so the only thing I've got for proof that it did is this very post on the Blue which for all I know could be a prank to show that people will mock truthers/skeptics even when they know nothing of the actual subject.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:32 PM on February 1, 2016
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:32 PM on February 1, 2016
The pyramid rock looks smoothed and weathered like what eons of rain will do to exposed rock faces on Earth. How does that happen on the moon? Was it melted by an impact?
posted by anonymisc at 6:35 PM on February 1, 2016
posted by anonymisc at 6:35 PM on February 1, 2016
(Ahh! Answering my own question by reading further they describe it as ejecta, so... yes :) )
posted by anonymisc at 6:36 PM on February 1, 2016
posted by anonymisc at 6:36 PM on February 1, 2016
12 Moon Rocks That Look Like 90's Sitcom Stars
/Buzzfeed
posted by davebush at 6:52 PM on February 1, 2016 [4 favorites]
/Buzzfeed
posted by davebush at 6:52 PM on February 1, 2016 [4 favorites]
This [direct link to large image] is totally what I want to see out of moon surface photography.
Yeah, yeah, I know. The Soviet Union, in conjunction with the US, and now China, were then and are now all making it up. Also, they were helped out by the lizard people, the Bilderbergs, etc., etc....
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:59 PM on February 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yeah, yeah, I know. The Soviet Union, in conjunction with the US, and now China, were then and are now all making it up. Also, they were helped out by the lizard people, the Bilderbergs, etc., etc....
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:59 PM on February 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
I saw something move
posted by clavdivs at 7:03 PM on February 1, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 7:03 PM on February 1, 2016 [6 favorites]
Maybe China's space program can spur another space race. I hope I'm alive when a human steps on Mars.
posted by LoveHam at 7:05 PM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by LoveHam at 7:05 PM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
1. This is cool.
2. Please ignore the ignorant idiots. It's not longer amusing to even poke fun at them.
3. Another space race would not be good, as once its won, mostly everything just goes away. Far better if everyone would work together.
4. This is cool.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:28 PM on February 1, 2016 [12 favorites]
2. Please ignore the ignorant idiots. It's not longer amusing to even poke fun at them.
3. Another space race would not be good, as once its won, mostly everything just goes away. Far better if everyone would work together.
4. This is cool.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:28 PM on February 1, 2016 [12 favorites]
Boy, do I love Emily Lakdawalla. Thanks for posting.
/Maybe we could fix the spelling of her name in the original post?
posted by benito.strauss at 7:48 PM on February 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
/Maybe we could fix the spelling of her name in the original post?
posted by benito.strauss at 7:48 PM on February 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
I really like Long Yan. Does anyone know how it developed the features we can see there? I'd just have guessed compressed sediment thrust up and worn away by erosion, but I have no idea if any of those mean anything off the surface of the Earth.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:00 PM on February 1, 2016
posted by benito.strauss at 8:00 PM on February 1, 2016
China: we can land on the moon and bring back high-res imagery, but we're too bass-ackwards to allow our scientists to efficiently distribute less than a Blu-Ray disc worth of photos and scientific data on the internet.
posted by zachlipton at 8:21 PM on February 1, 2016
posted by zachlipton at 8:21 PM on February 1, 2016
Somebody tell 'em, that's Nevada, I can see the lights of Vegas off to the left.
No, really I am glad they are up there, the moon seems brighter. I hope they took some great cameras with them.
posted by Oyéah at 8:40 PM on February 1, 2016
No, really I am glad they are up there, the moon seems brighter. I hope they took some great cameras with them.
posted by Oyéah at 8:40 PM on February 1, 2016
I'd just have guessed compressed sediment thrust up and worn away by erosion, but I have no idea if any of those mean anything off the surface of the Earth.
There's basically no sedimentary rock, as you'd think of it, on the moon. Basically you've got a body that started out molten, so all the heavy iron-rich stuff sank to the middle and the lighter colored lighter material floated to the surface. That was the original crust. Then you had some darker lava flows, making things like the maria, and a few billion years of impact bombardment. So you tend to see things like ejecta from an impact being throw out long distances from the main crater.
There is erosion, but it's due to micrometeorites, not flowing water.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 8:54 PM on February 1, 2016 [3 favorites]
There's basically no sedimentary rock, as you'd think of it, on the moon. Basically you've got a body that started out molten, so all the heavy iron-rich stuff sank to the middle and the lighter colored lighter material floated to the surface. That was the original crust. Then you had some darker lava flows, making things like the maria, and a few billion years of impact bombardment. So you tend to see things like ejecta from an impact being throw out long distances from the main crater.
There is erosion, but it's due to micrometeorites, not flowing water.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 8:54 PM on February 1, 2016 [3 favorites]
So could 'lava flow' explain the structure that makes it look like there are a series of fissures at -45 degrees along the rock? I realize that I haven't looked at that many moon rocks, but when I think of moonrocks I think of the round amorphous lumps like those all around in that picture, and Long Yan has the most structure I've ever seen.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:20 PM on February 1, 2016
posted by benito.strauss at 9:20 PM on February 1, 2016
any portmanteau in a storm: "Then again, I didn't hear anything about this "moon landing" when it was supposed to have happened,"
We talked about the landing here and here.
posted by Mitheral at 9:55 PM on February 1, 2016
We talked about the landing here and here.
posted by Mitheral at 9:55 PM on February 1, 2016
(Ahh! Answering my own question by reading further they describe it as ejecta, so... yes :) )
You do get some "weathering" on the moon, it's just from a different cause. No atmosphere to speak of, so micrometeorites don't burn up in the high atmosphere, they just scream on in and make tiny craters in rocks. During Apollo, they called them "zap pits."
This is the also a source of the incredibly fine lunar dust -- the ejecta from the those tiny impacts. Another is the high energy particles from the solar wind.
posted by eriko at 10:12 PM on February 1, 2016
You do get some "weathering" on the moon, it's just from a different cause. No atmosphere to speak of, so micrometeorites don't burn up in the high atmosphere, they just scream on in and make tiny craters in rocks. During Apollo, they called them "zap pits."
This is the also a source of the incredibly fine lunar dust -- the ejecta from the those tiny impacts. Another is the high energy particles from the solar wind.
posted by eriko at 10:12 PM on February 1, 2016
Bitchin' Camero, Bitchin' Camero
Donuts on your moon!
Bitchin' Camaro, bitchin' Camaro!
Gonna be back real soon!
posted by eriko at 10:18 PM on February 1, 2016 [3 favorites]
Donuts on your moon!
Bitchin' Camaro, bitchin' Camaro!
Gonna be back real soon!
posted by eriko at 10:18 PM on February 1, 2016 [3 favorites]
There's also the solar wind that causes weathering, too. The sun's constantly flinging out individual atoms of hydrogen and helium - more when you get a coronal mass ejection, that will slowly alter things, too, as these high speed particles knock individual atoms off the surface.
And it's bothering me that I can't find the source for this right now but I think, think that I heard someone talk about how there were darker structures on the moon surface that looked like impact craters but were actually from the remnant magnetic fields in the moon's crust focusing solar wind on certain areas. I did a quick search online and couldn't actually find anything about it though, so maybe I'm imagining things.
posted by Zalzidrax at 10:34 PM on February 1, 2016
And it's bothering me that I can't find the source for this right now but I think, think that I heard someone talk about how there were darker structures on the moon surface that looked like impact craters but were actually from the remnant magnetic fields in the moon's crust focusing solar wind on certain areas. I did a quick search online and couldn't actually find anything about it though, so maybe I'm imagining things.
posted by Zalzidrax at 10:34 PM on February 1, 2016
Boy, do I love Emily Lakdawalla.
She's great, isn't she? The work she and Planetary Society do educating the public is terrific.
posted by Nelson at 6:39 AM on February 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
She's great, isn't she? The work she and Planetary Society do educating the public is terrific.
posted by Nelson at 6:39 AM on February 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
So, I didn't know about any of this before this post, and it's giving new meaning to a short story I published: Zen Cho's "The Four Generations of Chang E", which was in How to Live on Other Planets: A Handbook for Aspiring Aliens (previously). I didn't realize the author was referencing actual moon landings! So neat. Thanks!
posted by joannemerriam at 8:45 AM on February 2, 2016
posted by joannemerriam at 8:45 AM on February 2, 2016
Wait, China landed on the moon? Why wasn't I told?
posted by mule98J at 8:54 AM on February 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by mule98J at 8:54 AM on February 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
You live in the United States.
posted by Mitheral at 9:32 AM on February 2, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by Mitheral at 9:32 AM on February 2, 2016 [7 favorites]
So let's assume they're fake [ducks].
Who would they get to do it? Who is the Chinese Stanley Kubrick?
There are a few immediate rejects. John Woo is right out. He'd insist on putting a dove in there someplace. Tsui Hark, too over the top. Ang Lee wouldn't keep quiet about it. Maybe, maybe Tian Zhuangzhuang. But I think if I had to guess, I'd go with Wong Kar-wai. There's a certain dreamy quality to some of these shots that reminds me of his work.
posted by Naberius at 9:43 AM on February 2, 2016
Who would they get to do it? Who is the Chinese Stanley Kubrick?
There are a few immediate rejects. John Woo is right out. He'd insist on putting a dove in there someplace. Tsui Hark, too over the top. Ang Lee wouldn't keep quiet about it. Maybe, maybe Tian Zhuangzhuang. But I think if I had to guess, I'd go with Wong Kar-wai. There's a certain dreamy quality to some of these shots that reminds me of his work.
posted by Naberius at 9:43 AM on February 2, 2016
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posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:24 PM on February 1, 2016