The Far Side of the Moon

Moon · space · astronomy · tidal locking

Always hidden from us. Due to tidal locking, the Moon rotates at exactly the same speed it orbits Earth, so we only ever see one side. The far side is completely invisible from our planet's surface.

Still gets sunlight. The far side isn't dark or unlit. Each spot on the Moon gets about two weeks of sunshine and two weeks of darkness, just like the near side does. The name 'dark side' just means 'unseen.'

Brighter than near side. The far side is actually more reflective and shiny than the side facing us. That's because it doesn't have the big dark patches (called maria) that cover much of the near side.

Explored by spacecraft. We only discovered what the far side looked like in 1959 when the Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft flew past the Moon and sent back the first images of this hidden hemisphere.