Hemisphere of the Moon that always faces away from Earth
"Dark side of the Moon" redirects here. For the Pink Floyd album, see The Dark Side of the Moon. For other uses, see Dark Side of the Moon (disambiguation).
This article is about the lunar phenomenon. For the Canadian film, see Far Side of the Moon (film). For the comic strip by Gary Larson, see The Far Side.
Photograph of the far side of the Moon, with Mare Orientale (center left) and the mare of the crater Apollo (top left) being visible, taken by Orion spacecraft during the Artemis 1 mission
The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that always faces away from Earth, opposite to the near side, because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. Compared to the near side, the far side's terrain is rugged, with a multitude of impact craters and relatively few flat and dark lunar maria ("seas"), giving it an appearance closer to other barren places in the Solar System such as Mercury and Callisto. It has one of the largest craters in the Solar System, the South Pole–Aitken basin. The hemisphere has sometimes been called the "dark side of the Moon", where "dark" means "unknown" instead of "lacking sunlight" – each location on the Moon experiences two weeks of sunlight while the opposite location experiences night.[1][2][3][4]
About 18 percent of the far side is occasionally visible from Earth due to oscillation and to libration. The remaining 82 percent remained unobserved until 1959, when it was photographed by the Soviet Luna 3 space probe. The Soviet Academy of Sciences published the first atlas of the far side in 1960. The Apollo 8 astronauts were the first humans to see the far side in person when they orbited the Moon in 1968. All crewed and uncrewed soft landings had taken place on the near side of the Moon, until January 3, 2019 when the Chang'e 4 spacecraft made the first landing on the far side.[5][6] The Chang'e 6 sample return mission launched on 3 May 2024 will land in the Apollo basin to collect the first samples from the far side.[7]
Astronomers have suggested installing a large radio telescope on the far side, where the Moon would shield it from possible radio interference from Earth.[8]
^Sigurdsson, Steinn (9 June 2014). "The Dark Side of the Moon: a Short History". Retrieved 16 September 2017.
^O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart (6 September 2011). "The Dark Side of the Moon". Retrieved 16 September 2017.
^Messer, A'ndrea Elyse (9 June 2014). "55-year-old dark side of the moon mystery solved". Penn State News. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
^Falin, Lee (5 January 2015). "What's on the Dark Side of the Moon?". Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
^Lyons, Kate. "Chang'e 4 landing: China probe makes historic touchdown on far side of the moon". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 3 January 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
^"Chinese spacecraft makes first landing on moon's far side". AP NEWS. 3 January 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
^"China launches Chang'e-6 to retrieve samples from moon's far side". Xinhua. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
^Kenneth Silber. "Down to Earth: The Apollo Moon Missions That Never Were".
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