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Amazing NASA video reveals the far side of the moon

The far side is the half of the moon that is permanently turned away from the Earth. Essentially, only one face of the Moon is presented to the surface of the Earth at all times. This is because of the phenomenon of tidal locking, which results in the Moon’s period of revolution equaling its period of rotation.

The video is taken from the perspective of a camera right above the far side of the Moon, and thus shows the Earth as well, sometimes passing behind the moon’s body. The Sun also zips by and disappears as the Moon enters its New Moon phase.

The video also shows libration and nutation, two effects which result in the Moon “rocking,” which allows us Earthlings the opportunity to actually glimpse a little more than half the Moon. Fifty-nine percent of the lunar surface is visible from Earth.

Unlike the side that faces us, which is filled with maria or “seas,” the far side is home to a large number of craters, including some of the largest and oldest known in the Solar System. One such is the South Pole-Aitken basin. 2,500 kilometers across and 13 kilometers deep, it is the largest, oldest and deepest impact site on the moon.

“The far side was first seen in a handful of grainy images returned by the Soviet Luna 3 probe, which swung around the Moon in October, 1959,” NASA said in a statement. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched in 2009, has so far gathered several hundred terabytes of data, allowing NASA to piece together extremely detailed images of this side of the Moon.

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