Mystery of ‘cube-shaped hut’ found on moon by Chinese rover finally answered

The hazy cube-like object playfully dubbed as a "mystery hut" on the moon has turned out to be a rock.

Last month, China's Yutu-2 rover made the discovery of the mysterious object on the far side of the moon, but it would take months for the rover to get close enough to find out what it was.

But Chinese scientists developed new strategies for the rover to travel across the moon's surface and reach the object faster – and the "mystery hut" is sadly nothing more than a regular old rock.

The cube appeared to be as tall as the Arc de Triomphe in the distance, the Chinese blog Our Space notes.

But when approached by the rover, it turned out to be very short, and "the drivers couldn't help but feel a little disappointed".

Nevertheless, the rock has been given the nickname "Jade Rabbit" thanks to the fragments of rock surrounding it, which look like the leftovers from a rabbit's carrot feast.

Although the discovery left scientists disappointed, it wasn't entirely unexpected, Vice notes.

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When the "cube" was first seen, many people speculated that it could just be the remnants of a meteor impact, as it appeared to be next to an impact crater.

The Yutu-2 rover will now get even closer to the rock in order to analyse it, along with the nearby crater.

The Our Space blog has described the innovative techniques used for the rover to get to the "hut" faster as "swaggering".

Drivers coaxed Yutu-2 into taking an extra step each day, covering more ground with each movement while navigating tricky craters.

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The trip north to the rock took more than 30 days, six steps in total, covering nearly 60 meters of lunar surface.

In other moon news, scientists have calculated how long it would take to walk around it.

According to the team at Live Science, with a "hypothetical walking speed of up to 3.1 mph (5 km/h) it would take about 91 days to walk the 6,786 miles (10,921 kilometres) around the moon".

According to the scientists, it wouldn't be possible to walk non-stop for 91 days in a row even though there'd really be nothing else you could do on the moon.

So a more realistic calculation would be that if a person walked at that speed for four hours a day they'd complete the journey in 1.5 years (547 days).

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