On December 23, 2013, China’s Chang’e-3 lander captured this four-picture mosaic of the Yutu (“Jade Rabbit”) rover. Yutu’s right solar panel is angled downward to better catch the glancing sunlight.
See Stunning Moon Photos from China's Lunar Lander
The Chang'e-3 lander discovered a new type of moon rock—and took thousands of high-res photos in the process.
Now you can see the moon's surface through the keen eyes of Chang'e-3, China's lunar lander.
On December 14, 2013, the lander and Yutu, its piggybacking rover, touched down on the moon's northern Mare Imbrium—making China just the third country ever to perform a soft landing on the lunar surface, after the Soviet Union and the United States.
The China National Space Administration publicly released thousands of the mission's stunning color photos sometime in 2015. But the shots haven't enjoyed much publicity in Western media until now, in part because China typically releases images by 12 to 18 months after receiving them, and uses an unwieldy website written only in Chinese to showcase them.
But the Planetary Society's
