China's Yutu-2 rover just won't stop making discoveries on the Moon. Chinese space authorities say they have found glass spheres on the far side of the moon.
The team behind the discovery published a paper about the findings in the journal Science Bulletin.
They say the spheres are roughly a centimeter in diameter, and were spotted in images taken by the panorama camera on the Yutu-2 rover on the dark side of the Moon.
Glass has been found on the Moon before, it was caused by meteorite impacts or the Moon's past volcanic activity.
The spheres that Yutu-2 discovered are larger than glass typically found on the Moon, according to the scientists. The newest glass samples have a light brown coloring.
Dr. Xiao is an associate professor at the Planetary Environmental and Astrobiological Research Laboratory at Sun Yat-sen University and the lead author of the study.
The discovery might indicate that glass spheres are common on the far side of the Moon. He suggests that it could be an incredibly valuable resource for future lunar colonies to produce glass for construction material or tools.
It's a long way from producing glass windows and greenhouses on the Moon, but it's still a fascinating discovery.
It's worth noting that Yutu-2 has been the source of some questionable claims during its time on the Moon. Remember the moon cube that turned out to be boring? Is that the gel that turned out to be another rock?
We might not make a decision until more data comes in.
The moon has glass on it.
The Moon's Backside is Surprisingly Sticky, China's Rover Finds.
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