Japan's space agency says it has re-established communication with its moon probe, confirming that the spacecraft made it through the cold lunar night.

The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, landed on the moon on January 20, making Japan the fifth country to achieve the feat. But a solar panel was facing the wrong way, and the vehicle was unable to generate power. SLIM started exploring several days later after catching some sunlight and communication was re-established.

The probe entered a dormant state following the onset of lunar night on the area where it landed. Its last communication was on January 31.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, says SLIM was not designed to endure through the night when the temperature dips to about minus 170 degrees Celsius.

But JAXA says it sent a command to the probe after the sun shone again on the landing point and it received a response.

JAXA says it terminated communication after a short time to avoid failure of its communication equipment, whose temperature exceeded 100 degrees Celsius.

The agency says it will try to communicate with the probe again and use a special camera on it for further observation to gather new data.

Earlier, the probe used the camera to collect data on as many as 10 rocks. The data will be used to look into the origin of the moon.