The moon is Earth’s nearest celestial companion, but we don’t often see fresh views of the lunar surface.

More than 40 years ago, the Soviet Luna probes took the last surface panoramas from the moon, and just about that much time has passed since the last robot actually went to work on the moon, rather than collecting data from orbit. Not since 1976, when the Luna 24 spacecraft scooped moon rocks from Mare Crisium and returned them to Earth, has any spacecraft collected data from a perch on the moon itself.

Now, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has posted a new gallery of images shot by China’s lunar-landing Chang’e 3 spacecraft and its little rover, Yutu (hat tip