China's lunar lander has woken from a freezing fortnight-long hibernation to find night-time temperatures on the moon's dark side are colder than previously thought, the national space agency said Thursday. The Chang'e-4 probe - named after a Chinese moon goddess - made the first ever soft landing on the far side of the moon on January 3, a major step in China's ambitions to become a space superpower.

Temperatures on the moon's surface plummeted to minus 190 degrees celsius (-310 degrees Fahrenheit) during the probe's first lunar night, which "was colder than scientists expected," the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said. The night-time temperatures were recorded by the Chinese probe after it became active on Wednesday, following a slumber that lasted for about two earth weeks.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019