By Tim Binnall
China’s Yutu 2 lunar rover is en route to investigate a curious cube-like anomaly, that has been dubbed the 'mystery hut,' spotted on the far side of the moon. Word of the weird observation reportedly came about by way of the China National Space Administration's Our Space website in a post on Friday, The blog recounted how scientists were admiring the horizon as seen by the rover when "suddenly, an obtrusive cube on the northern skyline attracted their attention" as it "pierced through the winding of the skyline, like a "mysterious hut" that appeared out of thin air."
The report went on to note that there was a sizeable impact crater near the object and then fantastically wondered if the oddity is "a home built by aliens after crash landing" or "a pioneer spacecraft of the predecessors to explore the moon." A less imaginative explanation put forward by scientists is that the anomaly is merely a boulder that came to rest upon the surface of the moon by whatever created the crater next to it. Be that as it may, the team behind the rover are understandably intrigued by the peculiar observation and, in an admirable display of scientific inquiry, have now directed the craft to head towards the 'mystery hut.'
Although it is located around 260 feet from the rover, it will take actually approximately two to three months for the research vehicle to fully reach the anomaly. One assumes that the cube will come into clearer focus as the craft gets closer to the object. The 'mystery hut' is not the first time that Yutu 2 has stumbled upon something strange on the far side of the moon as the rover previously observed and subsequently identified a 'mystery substance' that wound up being a rock transformed by extreme heat. With that in mind, one may wish to temper their expectations that the object will turn out to be an alien's house rather than the just a very big boulder.