THE landing site of the Chang’e-4 lunar probe has been named “Statio Tianhe” after the spacecraft made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon last month.

Together with three nearby impact craters and one hill, the name was approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), Liu Jizhong, director of the China Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), said at a joint press conference.

The CNSA held the joint press conference with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the IAU.

“Tianhe” is the Chinese word for Milky Way and “Statio” is Latin for base. Before “Statio Tianhe,” only one place is listed on lunar maps as “Statio,” namely “Statio Tranquilitatis” (Tranquility Base), the site the Apollo 11 crew members of the United States landed and walked on in 1969.

According to the CNSA, the Chang’e-4 probe landed at the preselected landing area at 177.6 degrees east longitude and 45.5 degrees south latitude on the far side of the moon at

10:26 a.m. Jan. 3. The landing area is the Von Karman Crater within the Aitken Basin.

The three nearby impact craters located in the Von Karman Crater form the shape of a triangle with Statio Tianhe at the center, looking like the celestial Summer Triangle prominent in evening skies from June through December in the northern hemisphere.

The defining vertices of the Summer Triangle are at Vega, Altair and Deneb, each of which is the brightest star of its constellation. The three craters were therefore named after the three stars with names in traditional Chinese astrology. Zhinyu is for Vega, Hegu (also called Niulang) for Altair and Tianjin for Deneb.

In Chinese folk tales, lovers Niulang and Zhinyu, one a cowherder and the other a weaver fairy, were separated by the Tianhe (Heavenly River, or the Milky Way), as their love was not allowed by the gods. They could only reunite once a year when a flock of magpies formed a bridge across the river.

In Chinese, Tianjin means galaxy’s ferry and bridge across the Milky Way.

Also, on Friday, the U.S. space agency NASA said that its lunar orbiter has observed the landing site of the Chang’e-4 lunar probe for the third time, capturing a much sharper view.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) passed nearly overhead the Chang’e-4 landing site Feb. 1, giving a 0.85-meter per pixel picture of the lander and Yutu-2 rover or Jade Rabbit-2 from an attitude of 82 kilometers, according to NASA.

This view had close to the smallest pixel size possible in the current LRO orbit.

NASA said the rover was 29 meters northwest of the lander, but the rover had likely moved since the image was acquired.

According to NASA, the LRO will continue to image the site as the lighting changes and the rover roves.

(Xinhua)