Year-ender: Historical human breakthroughs in 2019

Image reveals moon's far side

Humankind's lunar exploration history saw the opening of a new chapter on the morning of Jan 3, 2019, as the world's first explorer of the moon's far side, the Chang'e 4 lunar probe, landed at its destination after a 26-day space journey.

The Chang'e 4 lunar probe sent back a picture of the landing site shot by one of the monitor cameras on the probe's lander, marking the world's first image taken on the moon's far side.

The mission met the goal of human detectors’ soft-landing on the far side of the moon and the communication relay with earth from that side for the first time.

The successful landing is expected to fulfill scientists' long-held aspiration to closely observe the enormous region and enable scientists to discover what they haven't known about the moon and deepen their knowledge about the early histories of the satellite and the solar system.