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Far side of the Moon

October 23, 2023

"Dark side of the Moon" redirects here. For other uses, see Dark Side of the Moon (disambiguation).
For the Canadian film, see Far Side of the Moon (film).

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 side of the Moon experiences two weeks of sunlight while the opposite side experiences two weeks of night.[1][2][3][4]

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

About 18 percent of the far side is occasionally visible from Earth due 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 3 January 2019 when the Chang'e 4 spacecraft made the first landing on the far side.[5]

Astronomers have suggested installing a large radio telescope on the far side, where the Moon would shield it from possible radio interference from Earth.[6]

Definition Edit

 
Due to tidal locking, the inhabitants of the central body (Earth) will never be able to see the satellite's (Moon) green area

Tidal forces from Earth have slowed the Moon's rotation to the point where the same side is always facing the Earth—a phenomenon called tidal locking. The other face, most of which is never visible from the Earth, is therefore called the "far side of the Moon". Over time, some crescent-shaped edges of the far side can be seen due to libration.[7] In total, 59 percent of the Moon's surface is visible from Earth at one time or another. Useful observation of the parts of the far side of the Moon occasionally visible from Earth is difficult because of the low viewing angle from Earth (they cannot be observed "full on").

A common misconception is that the Moon does not rotate on its axis. If that were so, the whole of the Moon would be visible to Earth over the course of its orbit. Instead, its rotation period matches its orbital period, meaning it turns around once for every orbit it makes: in Earth terms, it could be said that its day and its year have the same length (i.e., ~29.5 earth days).

The phrase "dark side of the Moon" does not refer to "dark" as in the absence of light, but rather "dark" as in unknown: until humans were able to send spacecraft around the Moon, this area had never been seen.[1][2][3] In reality, both the near and far sides receive (on average) almost equal amounts of light directly from the Sun. This symmetry is complicated by sunlight reflected from the Earth onto the near side (earthshine),[8] and by lunar eclipses, which occur only when the far side is already dark. Lunar eclipses mean that the side facing earth receives fractionally LESS sunlight than the far side when considered over a long period of time.

At night under a "full Earth" the near side of the Moon receives on the order of 10 lux of illumination (about what a city sidewalk under streetlights gets; this is 34 times more light than is received on Earth under a full Moon) whereas the dark side of the Moon during the lunar night receives only about 0.001 lux of starlight.[8] Only during a full Moon (as viewed from Earth) is the whole far side of the Moon dark.

The word dark has expanded to refer also to the fact that communication with spacecraft can be blocked while the spacecraft is on the far side of the Moon, during Apollo space missions for example.[9]

Differences Edit

See also: Lunar mare
 
Detailed view with Mare Moscoviense visible, by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

The two hemispheres of the Moon have distinctly different appearances, with the near side covered in multiple, large maria (Latin for 'seas,' since the earliest astronomers incorrectly thought that these plains were seas of lunar water). The far side has a battered, densely cratered appearance with few maria. Only 1% of the surface of the far side is covered by maria,[10] compared to 31.2% on the near side. One commonly accepted explanation for this difference is related to a higher concentration of heat-producing elements on the near-side hemisphere, as has been demonstrated by geochemical maps obtained from the Lunar Prospector gamma-ray spectrometer. While other factors, such as surface elevation and crustal thickness, could also affect where basalts erupt, these do not explain why the far side South Pole–Aitken basin (which contains the lowest elevations of the Moon and possesses a thin crust) was not as volcanically active as Oceanus Procellarum on the near side.

It has also been proposed that the differences between the two hemispheres may have been caused by a collision with a smaller companion moon that also originated from the Theia collision.[11] In this model, the impact led to an accretionary pile rather than a crater, contributing a hemispheric layer of extent and thickness that may be consistent with the dimensions of the far side highlands. However, the chemical composition of the far side is inconsistent with this model.[citation needed]

The far side has more visible craters. This was thought to be a result of the effects of lunar lava flows, which cover and obscure craters, rather than a shielding effect from the Earth. NASA calculates that the Earth obscures only about 4 square degrees out of 41,000 square degrees of the sky as seen from the Moon. "This makes the Earth negligible as a shield for the Moon [and] it is likely that each side of the Moon has received equal numbers of impacts, but the resurfacing by lava results in fewer craters visible on the near side than the far side, even though both sides have received the same number of impacts."[12]

Newer research suggests that heat from Earth at the time when the Moon was formed is the reason the near side has fewer impact craters. The lunar crust consists primarily of plagioclases formed when aluminium and calcium condensed and combined with silicates in the mantle. The cooler far side experienced condensation of these elements sooner and so formed a thicker crust; meteoroid impacts on the near side would sometimes penetrate the thinner crust here and release basaltic lava that created the maria, but would rarely do so on the far side.[13]

Exploration Edit

Early exploration Edit

 
The 7 October 1959 image by Luna 3, which revealed for the first time the far side of the Moon. Clearly visible is Mare Moscoviense (top right) and a mare triplet of Mare Crisium, Mare Marginis and Mare Smythii (left center).
 
When the first ever image of the far side of the Moon (A) is restored using advanced noise removal techniques (B) and compared to later LRO mission from NASA (C) the important feature points are distinctly visible and a clear, one to one mapping of the visible feature points are noticeable.

Until the late 1950s, little was known about the far side of the Moon. Librations periodically allowed limited glimpses of features near the lunar limb on the far side, but only up to 59% of the total surface of the Moon.[14] These features, however, were seen from a low angle, hindering useful observation (it proved difficult to distinguish a crater from a mountain range). The remaining 82% of the surface on the far side remained unknown, and its properties were subject to much speculation.

An example of a far side feature that can be seen through libration is the Mare Orientale, which is a prominent impact basin spanning almost 1,000 km (600 miles), yet this was not even named as a feature until 1906, by Julius Franz in Der Mond. The true nature of the basin was discovered in the 1960s when rectified images were projected onto a globe. The basin was photographed in fine detail by Lunar Orbiter 4 in 1967.

Before space exploration began, astronomers did not expect that the far side would be different from the side visible to Earth.[15] On 7 October 1959, the Soviet probe Luna 3 took the first photographs of the lunar far side, eighteen of them resolvable,[16][15] covering one-third of the surface invisible from the Earth.[17] The images were analysed, and the first atlas of the far side of the Moon was published by the USSR Academy of Sciences on 6 November 1960.[18][19] It included a catalog of 500 distinguished features of the landscape.[20]

In 1961, the first globe (1:13600000 scale)[21] containing lunar features invisible from the Earth was released in the USSR, based on images from Luna 3.[22] On 20 July 1965, another Soviet probe, Zond 3, transmitted 25 pictures of very good quality of the lunar far side,[23] with much better resolution than those from Luna 3. In particular, they revealed chains of craters, hundreds of kilometers in length,[17] but, unexpectedly, no mare plains like those visible from Earth with the naked eye.[15]

In 1967, the second part of the Atlas of the Far Side of the Moon was published in Moscow,[24][25] based on data from Zond 3, with the catalog now including 4,000 newly discovered features of the lunar far side landscape.[17] In the same year, the first Complete Map of the Moon (1:5000000 scale[21]) and updated complete globe (1:10000000 scale), featuring 95 percent of the lunar surface,[21] were released in the Soviet Union.[26][27]

As many prominent landscape features of the far side were discovered by Soviet space probes, Soviet scientists selected names for them. This caused some controversy, and the International Astronomical Union, leaving many of those names intact, later assumed the role of naming lunar features on this hemisphere.

Further survey mission Edit

On 26 April 1962, NASA's Ranger 4 space probe became the first spacecraft to impact the far side of the Moon, although it failed to return any scientific data before impact.[28]

The first truly comprehensive and detailed mapping survey of the far side was undertaken by the American uncrewed Lunar Orbiter program launched by NASA from 1966 to 1967. Most of the coverage of the far side was provided by the final probe in the series, Lunar Orbiter 5.

The far side was first seen directly by human eyes during the Apollo 8 mission in December, 1968. Astronaut William Anders described the view:

“The backside looks like a sand pile my kids have played in for some time. It's all beat up, no definition, just a lot of bumps and holes.”

 
The far side of the Moon, with Mare Marginis and Mare Smythii visible, photographed by Apollo 16 in 1972. It is much more cratered than the near side of the Moon.

It has been seen by all 24 men who flew on Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 through Apollo 17, and photographed by multiple lunar probes. Spacecraft passing behind the Moon were out of direct radio communication with the Earth, and had to wait until the orbit allowed transmission. During the Apollo missions, the main engine of the Service Module was fired when the vessel was behind the Moon, producing some tense moments in Mission Control before the craft reappeared.

Geologist-astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who became the last to step onto the Moon, had aggressively lobbied for Apollo 17's landing site to be on the far side of the Moon, targeting the lava-filled crater Tsiolkovskiy. Schmitt's ambitious proposal included a special communications satellite based on the existing TIROS satellites to be launched into a Farquhar–Lissajous halo orbit around the L2 point so as to maintain line-of-sight contact with the astronauts during their powered descent and lunar surface operations. NASA administrators rejected these plans on the grounds of added risk and lack of funding.

The idea of utilizing Earth–Moon L2 for communications satellite covering the Moon's far side has been realized, as China National Space Administration launched Queqiao relay satellite in 2018.[29] It has since been used for communications between the Chang'e 4 lander and Yutu 2 rover that have successfully landed in early 2019 on the lunar far side and ground stations on the Earth. And L2 is proposed to be "an ideal location" for a propellant depot as part of the proposed depot-based space transportation architecture.[30]

Soft landing Edit

 
The Chang'e-4 lander imaged by the Yutu-2 rover on the lunar far side.

The China National Space Administration's Chang'e 4 achieved humanity's first ever soft landing on the lunar far side on 3 January 2019 and deployed Yutu-2 lunar rover onto far side lunar surface.[31]

The craft included a lander equipped with a low-frequency radio spectrograph and geological research tools.[32] The far side of the Moon provides a good environment for radio astronomy as interferences from the Earth are blocked by the Moon.

In February 2020, Chinese astronomers reported, for the first time, a high-resolution image of a lunar ejecta sequence, and, as well, direct analysis of its internal architecture. These were based on observations made by the Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) on board the Yutu-2 rover.[33][34]

The Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment (LuSEE-Night) lander, a mission to soft land as early as 2026 a robotic observatory on the far side designed to measure electromagnetic waves from the early history of the universe is being developed by NASA and the United States Department of Energy.[35]

 
The first panorama from the far side of the Moon taken by Chang'e 4

Potential uses and missions Edit

Because the far side of the Moon is shielded from radio transmissions from the Earth, it is considered a good location for placing radio telescopes for use by astronomers. Small, bowl-shaped craters provide a natural formation for a stationary telescope similar to Arecibo in Puerto Rico. For much larger-scale telescopes, the 100-kilometer-diameter (60 mi) crater Daedalus is situated near the center of the far side, and the 3-kilometer-high (2 mi) rim would help to block stray communications from orbiting satellites. Another potential candidate for a radio telescope is the Saha crater.[36]

Before deploying radio telescopes to the far side, several problems must be overcome. The fine lunar dust can contaminate equipment, vehicles, and space suits. The conducting materials used for the radio dishes must also be carefully shielded against the effects of solar flares. Finally, the area around the telescopes must be protected against contamination by other radio sources.

The L2 Lagrange point of the Earth–Moon system is located about 62,800 km (39,000 mi) above the far side, which has also been proposed as a location for a future radio telescope which would perform a Lissajous orbit about the Lagrangian point.

One of the NASA missions to the Moon under study would send a sample-return lander to the South Pole–Aitken basin, the location of a major impact event that created a formation nearly 2,400 km (1,500 mi) across. The force of this impact has created a deep penetration into the lunar surface, and a sample returned from this site could be analyzed for information concerning the interior of the Moon.[37]

Because the near side is partly shielded from the solar wind by the Earth, the far side maria are expected to have the highest concentration of helium-3 on the surface of the Moon.[38] This isotope is relatively rare on the Earth, but has good potential for use as a fuel in fusion reactors. Proponents of lunar settlement have cited the presence of this material as a reason for developing a Moon base.[39]

Named features Edit

 
Some of the features of the geography of the far side of the Moon are labeled in this image

See also Edit

References Edit

  1. ^ a b Sigurdsson, Steinn (9 June 2014). "The Dark Side of the Moon: a Short History". Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  2. ^ a b O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart (6 September 2011). "The Dark Side of the Moon". Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  3. ^ a b Messer, A'ndrea Elyse (9 June 2014). "55-year-old dark side of the moon mystery solved". Penn State News. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  4. ^ Falin, Lee (5 January 2015). . Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  5. ^ "Chinese spacecraft makes first landing on moon's far side". AP NEWS. 3 January 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  6. ^ Kenneth Silber. "Down to Earth: The Apollo Moon Missions That Never Were".
  7. ^ NASA. "Libration of the Moon". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)[dead link]
  8. ^ a b "The Dark Side of the Moon". 18 January 2013.
  9. ^ "Dark No More: Exploring the Far Side of the Moon". 29 April 2013.
  10. ^ J. J. Gillis; P. D. Spudis (1996). "The Composition and Geologic Setting of Lunar Far Side Maria". Lunar and Planetary Science. 27: 413. Bibcode:1996LPI....27..413G.
  11. ^ M. Jutzi; E. Asphaug (2011). "Forming the lunar farside highlands by accretion of a companion moon". Nature. 476 (7358): 69–72. Bibcode:2011Natur.476...69J. doi:10.1038/nature10289. PMID 21814278. S2CID 84558.
  12. ^ Near-side/far-side impact crater counts by David Morrison and Brad Bailey, NASA. http://lunarscience.nasa.gov/?question=3318. Accessed 9 January 2013.
  13. ^ Messer, A'ndrea Elyse (9 June 2014). "55-year-old dark side of the moon mystery solved". Penn State University. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  14. ^ "How much moon do we see? | EarthSky.org". earthsky.org. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  15. ^ a b c Ley, Willy (April 1966). "The Re-Designed Solar System". For Your Information. Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 126–136.
  16. ^ "NASA – NSSDCA – Spacecraft – Details". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov.
  17. ^ a b c Луна (спутник Земли), Great Soviet Encyclopedia
  18. ^ АТЛАС ОБРАТНОЙ СТОРОНЫ ЛУНЫ, Ч. 1, Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences, 1960
  19. ^ Launius, Roger D. "Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology, 1960". www.hq.nasa.gov.
  20. ^ (in Russian) Chronology, 1804–1980, to the 150th anniversary of GAISh – Moscow State University observatory. MSU
  21. ^ a b c (in Russian) Moon maps and globes, created with the participation of Lunar and Planetary Research Department of SAI. SAI
  22. ^ "Sphæra: the Newsletter of the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford". www.mhs.ox.ac.uk.
  23. ^ "NASA – NSSDCA – Spacecraft – Details". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov.
  24. ^ Atlas Obratnoy Storony Luny, p.2, Moscow: Nauka, 1967
  25. ^ . Adler Planetarium. Archived from the original on 22 December 2007. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  26. ^ "Works of the Department of lunar and planetary research of GAISh MGU". selena.sai.msu.ru.
  27. ^ (in Russian) Moon Maps. MSU
  28. ^ "Discussion". Space Policy. 14 (1): 5–8. 1998. Bibcode:1998SpPol..14....5.. doi:10.1016/S0265-9646(97)00038-6.
  29. ^ Jones, Andrew (14 June 2018). "Chang'e-4 relay satellite enters halo orbit around Earth-Moon L2, microsatellite in lunar orbit". SpaceNews.
  30. ^ Zegler, Frank; Kutter, Bernard (2 September 2010). (PDF). AIAA SPACE 2010 Conference & Exposition. AIAA. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 June 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2011. L2 is in deep space far away from any planetary surface and hence the thermal, micrometeoroid, and atomic oxygen environments are vastly superior to those in LEO. Thermodynamic stasis and extended hardware life are far easier to obtain without these punishing conditions seen in LEO. L2 is not just a great gateway—it is a great place to store propellants. ... L2 is an ideal location to store propellants and cargos: it is close, high energy, and cold. More importantly, it allows the continuous onward movement of propellants from LEO depots, thus suppressing their size and effectively minimizing the near-Earth boiloff penalties.
  31. ^ "Chinese spacecraft makes first landing on moon's far side". Times of India. Associated Press. 3 January 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  32. ^ . Xinhua English News. 8 September 2015. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015.
  33. ^ Chang, Kenneth (26 February 2020). "China's Rover Finds Layers of Surprise Under Moon's Far Side - The Chang'e-4 mission, the first to land on the lunar far side, is demonstrating the promise and peril of using ground-penetrating radar in planetary science". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  34. ^ Li, Chunlai; et al. (26 February 2020). "The Moon's farside shallow subsurface structure unveiled by Chang'E-4 Lunar Penetrating Radar". Science Advances. 6 (9): eaay6898. Bibcode:2020SciA....6.6898L. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aay6898. PMC 7043921. PMID 32133404.
  35. ^ "NASA, Department of Energy Join Forces on Innovative Lunar Experiment". 6 March 2023.
  36. ^ Stenger, Richard (9 January 2002). . CNN. Archived from the original on 25 March 2007. Retrieved 26 January 2007.
  37. ^ M. B. Duke; B. C. Clark; T. Gamber; P. G. Lucey; G. Ryder; G. J. Taylor (1999). "Sample Return Mission to the South Pole Aitken Basin" (PDF). Workshop on New Views of the Moon 2: Understanding the Moon Through the Integration of Diverse Datasets: 11.
  38. ^ "Thar's Gold in Tham Lunar Hills". Daily Record. 28 January 2006. Retrieved 26 January 2007.
  39. ^ Schmitt, Harrison (7 December 2004). "Mining the Moon". Popular Mechanics. from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
  40. ^ a b c d e "Chang'e-4's moon landing site named". China Daily. 17 February 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  41. ^ a b c d e "IAU Names Landing Site of Chinese Chang'e-4 Probe on Far Side of the Moon". International Astronomical Union. 15 February 2019.

External links Edit

  • Lunar and Planetary Institute: Exploring the Moon
  • NASA takes first video of dark side of the Moon
  • Lunar and Planetary Institute: Lunar Atlases
  • Ralph Aeschliman Planetary Cartography and Graphics: Lunar Maps 29 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  • Full Moon Atlas: Lunar Far Side at lunarrepublic.com
  • Northwest Africa 482, only meteorite believed to have originated from the far side of the Moon
  • Moon articles in Planetary Science Research Discoveries
  • Merrifield, Michael. "Far Side of the Moon". Sixty Symbols. Brady Haran for the University of Nottingham.
  • LIFE magazine (Nov. 9, 1959) article about first photos.

October 23, 2023
side, moon, dark, side, moon, redirects, here, other, uses, dark, side, moon, disambiguation, canadian, film, side, moon, film, side, moon, lunar, hemisphere, that, always, faces, away, from, earth, opposite, near, side, because, synchronous, rotation, moon, o. Dark side of the Moon redirects here For other uses see Dark Side of the Moon disambiguation For the Canadian film see Far Side of the Moon film 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 side of the Moon experiences two weeks of sunlight while the opposite side experiences two weeks of night 1 2 3 4 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 missionAbout 18 percent of the far side is occasionally visible from Earth due 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 3 January 2019 when the Chang e 4 spacecraft made the first landing on the far side 5 Astronomers have suggested installing a large radio telescope on the far side where the Moon would shield it from possible radio interference from Earth 6 Contents 1 Definition 2 Differences 3 Exploration 3 1 Early exploration 3 2 Further survey mission 3 3 Soft landing 4 Potential uses and missions 5 Named features 6 See also 7 References 8 External linksDefinition Edit nbsp Due to tidal locking the inhabitants of the central body Earth will never be able to see the satellite s Moon green areaTidal forces from Earth have slowed the Moon s rotation to the point where the same side is always facing the Earth a phenomenon called tidal locking The other face most of which is never visible from the Earth is therefore called the far side of the Moon Over time some crescent shaped edges of the far side can be seen due to libration 7 In total 59 percent of the Moon s surface is visible from Earth at one time or another Useful observation of the parts of the far side of the Moon occasionally visible from Earth is difficult because of the low viewing angle from Earth they cannot be observed full on A common misconception is that the Moon does not rotate on its axis If that were so the whole of the Moon would be visible to Earth over the course of its orbit Instead its rotation period matches its orbital period meaning it turns around once for every orbit it makes in Earth terms it could be said that its day and its year have the same length i e 29 5 earth days The phrase dark side of the Moon does not refer to dark as in the absence of light but rather dark as in unknown until humans were able to send spacecraft around the Moon this area had never been seen 1 2 3 In reality both the near and far sides receive on average almost equal amounts of light directly from the Sun This symmetry is complicated by sunlight reflected from the Earth onto the near side earthshine 8 and by lunar eclipses which occur only when the far side is already dark Lunar eclipses mean that the side facing earth receives fractionally LESS sunlight than the far side when considered over a long period of time At night under a full Earth the near side of the Moon receives on the order of 10 lux of illumination about what a city sidewalk under streetlights gets this is 34 times more light than is received on Earth under a full Moon whereas the dark side of the Moon during the lunar night receives only about 0 001 lux of starlight 8 Only during a full Moon as viewed from Earth is the whole far side of the Moon dark The word dark has expanded to refer also to the fact that communication with spacecraft can be blocked while the spacecraft is on the far side of the Moon during Apollo space missions for example 9 Differences EditSee also Lunar mare nbsp Detailed view with Mare Moscoviense visible by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LRO The two hemispheres of the Moon have distinctly different appearances with the near side covered in multiple large maria Latin for seas since the earliest astronomers incorrectly thought that these plains were seas of lunar water The far side has a battered densely cratered appearance with few maria Only 1 of the surface of the far side is covered by maria 10 compared to 31 2 on the near side One commonly accepted explanation for this difference is related to a higher concentration of heat producing elements on the near side hemisphere as has been demonstrated by geochemical maps obtained from the Lunar Prospector gamma ray spectrometer While other factors such as surface elevation and crustal thickness could also affect where basalts erupt these do not explain why the far side South Pole Aitken basin which contains the lowest elevations of the Moon and possesses a thin crust was not as volcanically active as Oceanus Procellarum on the near side It has also been proposed that the differences between the two hemispheres may have been caused by a collision with a smaller companion moon that also originated from the Theia collision 11 In this model the impact led to an accretionary pile rather than a crater contributing a hemispheric layer of extent and thickness that may be consistent with the dimensions of the far side highlands However the chemical composition of the far side is inconsistent with this model citation needed The far side has more visible craters This was thought to be a result of the effects of lunar lava flows which cover and obscure craters rather than a shielding effect from the Earth NASA calculates that the Earth obscures only about 4 square degrees out of 41 000 square degrees of the sky as seen from the Moon This makes the Earth negligible as a shield for the Moon and it is likely that each side of the Moon has received equal numbers of impacts but the resurfacing by lava results in fewer craters visible on the near side than the far side even though both sides have received the same number of impacts 12 Newer research suggests that heat from Earth at the time when the Moon was formed is the reason the near side has fewer impact craters The lunar crust consists primarily of plagioclases formed when aluminium and calcium condensed and combined with silicates in the mantle The cooler far side experienced condensation of these elements sooner and so formed a thicker crust meteoroid impacts on the near side would sometimes penetrate the thinner crust here and release basaltic lava that created the maria but would rarely do so on the far side 13 Exploration EditEarly exploration Edit nbsp The 7 October 1959 image by Luna 3 which revealed for the first time the far side of the Moon Clearly visible is Mare Moscoviense top right and a mare triplet of Mare Crisium Mare Marginis and Mare Smythii left center nbsp When the first ever image of the far side of the Moon A is restored using advanced noise removal techniques B and compared to later LRO mission from NASA C the important feature points are distinctly visible and a clear one to one mapping of the visible feature points are noticeable Until the late 1950s little was known about the far side of the Moon Librations periodically allowed limited glimpses of features near the lunar limb on the far side but only up to 59 of the total surface of the Moon 14 These features however were seen from a low angle hindering useful observation it proved difficult to distinguish a crater from a mountain range The remaining 82 of the surface on the far side remained unknown and its properties were subject to much speculation An example of a far side feature that can be seen through libration is the Mare Orientale which is a prominent impact basin spanning almost 1 000 km 600 miles yet this was not even named as a feature until 1906 by Julius Franz in Der Mond The true nature of the basin was discovered in the 1960s when rectified images were projected onto a globe The basin was photographed in fine detail by Lunar Orbiter 4 in 1967 Before space exploration began astronomers did not expect that the far side would be different from the side visible to Earth 15 On 7 October 1959 the Soviet probe Luna 3 took the first photographs of the lunar far side eighteen of them resolvable 16 15 covering one third of the surface invisible from the Earth 17 The images were analysed and the first atlas of the far side of the Moon was published by the USSR Academy of Sciences on 6 November 1960 18 19 It included a catalog of 500 distinguished features of the landscape 20 In 1961 the first globe 1 13600 000 scale 21 containing lunar features invisible from the Earth was released in the USSR based on images from Luna 3 22 On 20 July 1965 another Soviet probe Zond 3 transmitted 25 pictures of very good quality of the lunar far side 23 with much better resolution than those from Luna 3 In particular they revealed chains of craters hundreds of kilometers in length 17 but unexpectedly no mare plains like those visible from Earth with the naked eye 15 In 1967 the second part of the Atlas of the Far Side of the Moon was published in Moscow 24 25 based on data from Zond 3 with the catalog now including 4 000 newly discovered features of the lunar far side landscape 17 In the same year the first Complete Map of the Moon 1 5000 000 scale 21 and updated complete globe 1 10000 000 scale featuring 95 percent of the lunar surface 21 were released in the Soviet Union 26 27 As many prominent landscape features of the far side were discovered by Soviet space probes Soviet scientists selected names for them This caused some controversy and the International Astronomical Union leaving many of those names intact later assumed the role of naming lunar features on this hemisphere Further survey mission Edit On 26 April 1962 NASA s Ranger 4 space probe became the first spacecraft to impact the far side of the Moon although it failed to return any scientific data before impact 28 The first truly comprehensive and detailed mapping survey of the far side was undertaken by the American uncrewed Lunar Orbiter program launched by NASA from 1966 to 1967 Most of the coverage of the far side was provided by the final probe in the series Lunar Orbiter 5 The far side was first seen directly by human eyes during the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968 Astronaut William Anders described the view The backside looks like a sand pile my kids have played in for some time It s all beat up no definition just a lot of bumps and holes nbsp The far side of the Moon with Mare Marginis and Mare Smythii visible photographed by Apollo 16 in 1972 It is much more cratered than the near side of the Moon It has been seen by all 24 men who flew on Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 through Apollo 17 and photographed by multiple lunar probes Spacecraft passing behind the Moon were out of direct radio communication with the Earth and had to wait until the orbit allowed transmission During the Apollo missions the main engine of the Service Module was fired when the vessel was behind the Moon producing some tense moments in Mission Control before the craft reappeared Geologist astronaut Harrison Schmitt who became the last to step onto the Moon had aggressively lobbied for Apollo 17 s landing site to be on the far side of the Moon targeting the lava filled crater Tsiolkovskiy Schmitt s ambitious proposal included a special communications satellite based on the existing TIROS satellites to be launched into a Farquhar Lissajous halo orbit around the L2 point so as to maintain line of sight contact with the astronauts during their powered descent and lunar surface operations NASA administrators rejected these plans on the grounds of added risk and lack of funding The idea of utilizing Earth Moon L2 for communications satellite covering the Moon s far side has been realized as China National Space Administration launched Queqiao relay satellite in 2018 29 It has since been used for communications between the Chang e 4 lander and Yutu 2 rover that have successfully landed in early 2019 on the lunar far side and ground stations on the Earth And L2 is proposed to be an ideal location for a propellant depot as part of the proposed depot based space transportation architecture 30 Soft landing Edit nbsp The Chang e 4 lander imaged by the Yutu 2 rover on the lunar far side The China National Space Administration s Chang e 4 achieved humanity s first ever soft landing on the lunar far side on 3 January 2019 and deployed Yutu 2 lunar rover onto far side lunar surface 31 The craft included a lander equipped with a low frequency radio spectrograph and geological research tools 32 The far side of the Moon provides a good environment for radio astronomy as interferences from the Earth are blocked by the Moon In February 2020 Chinese astronomers reported for the first time a high resolution image of a lunar ejecta sequence and as well direct analysis of its internal architecture These were based on observations made by the Lunar Penetrating Radar LPR on board the Yutu 2 rover 33 34 The Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment LuSEE Night lander a mission to soft land as early as 2026 a robotic observatory on the far side designed to measure electromagnetic waves from the early history of the universe is being developed by NASA and the United States Department of Energy 35 nbsp The first panorama from the far side of the Moon taken by Chang e 4Potential uses and missions EditBecause the far side of the Moon is shielded from radio transmissions from the Earth it is considered a good location for placing radio telescopes for use by astronomers Small bowl shaped craters provide a natural formation for a stationary telescope similar to Arecibo in Puerto Rico For much larger scale telescopes the 100 kilometer diameter 60 mi crater Daedalus is situated near the center of the far side and the 3 kilometer high 2 mi rim would help to block stray communications from orbiting satellites Another potential candidate for a radio telescope is the Saha crater 36 Before deploying radio telescopes to the far side several problems must be overcome The fine lunar dust can contaminate equipment vehicles and space suits The conducting materials used for the radio dishes must also be carefully shielded against the effects of solar flares Finally the area around the telescopes must be protected against contamination by other radio sources The L2 Lagrange point of the Earth Moon system is located about 62 800 km 39 000 mi above the far side which has also been proposed as a location for a future radio telescope which would perform a Lissajous orbit about the Lagrangian point One of the NASA missions to the Moon under study would send a sample return lander to the South Pole Aitken basin the location of a major impact event that created a formation nearly 2 400 km 1 500 mi across The force of this impact has created a deep penetration into the lunar surface and a sample returned from this site could be analyzed for information concerning the interior of the Moon 37 Because the near side is partly shielded from the solar wind by the Earth the far side maria are expected to have the highest concentration of helium 3 on the surface of the Moon 38 This isotope is relatively rare on the Earth but has good potential for use as a fuel in fusion reactors Proponents of lunar settlement have cited the presence of this material as a reason for developing a Moon base 39 Named features Edit nbsp Some of the features of the geography of the far side of the Moon are labeled in this imageAitken crater Amici crater Anuchin crater Apollo crater Avogadro crater Bel kovich crater Belopol skiy crater Bergstrand crater Berkner crater Birkhoff crater Bjerknes lunar crater Bok lunar crater Campbell lunar crater Cantor crater Carnot crater Cassegrain crater Chandler crater Chappell crater Chernyshev crater Comrie crater Coulomb Sarton Basin Crookes crater d Alembert crater Daedalus crater Davisson crater Delporte crater Dyson crater Ellerman crater Emden crater Esnault Pelterie crater Finsen crater Fleming crater Fowler crater Fridman crater Gerasimovich crater Gullstrand crater Hayn crater Hegu crater 40 41 Hertzsprung crater H G Wells crater Hippocrates lunar crater Houzeau crater Icarus crater Ioffe crater Izsak crater Jenner crater Kamerlingh Onnes crater Kirkwood crater Klute crater Kolhorster crater Komarov crater Korolev lunar crater Kovalevskaya crater Kugler crater Kulik crater Lamb crater Lacus Luxuriae Lacus Oblivionis Lander crater Langevin crater Lebedev crater Leibnitz crater Lucretius crater Lunar south pole Maksutov crater McKellar crater Mare Australe Mare Frigoris Mare Humboldtianum Mare Ingenii Mare Moscoviense Mare Orientale Mendeleev crater Michelson crater Montes Cordillera Montes Rook Mons Tai 40 41 Nicholson lunar crater Nishina crater Ohm crater Oppenheimer crater Oresme crater Pannekoek crater Paraskevopoulos crater Parenago crater Patsaev crater Perrine crater Pettit lunar crater Pirquet crater Pogson crater Priestley lunar crater Quetelet crater Rowland crater Sarton crater Schlesinger crater Shaler crater Shternberg crater Shuleykin crater Sniadecki crater Sommerfeld crater South Pole Aitken basin Statio Tianhe 40 41 Stebbins crater Stoletov crater Sverdrup crater Tianjin crater 40 41 Tikhov lunar crater Titov crater Tsinger crater Tsiolkovskiy crater Tyndall lunar crater Vallis Bouvard Vallis Inghirami van t Hoff crater Van der Waals crater Vavilov crater Vertregt crater Virtanen crater Volkov crater Von Karman lunar crater Von Zeipel crater Wan Hoo crater Wiener crater Wright lunar crater Yamamoto crater Zhinyu crater 40 41 See also EditGeology of the Moon Giant impact hypothesis Near side of the MoonReferences Edit a b Sigurdsson Steinn 9 June 2014 The Dark Side of the Moon a Short History Retrieved 16 September 2017 a b O Conner Patricia T Kellerman Stewart 6 September 2011 The Dark Side of the Moon Retrieved 16 September 2017 a b 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 Chinese spacecraft makes first landing on moon s far side AP NEWS 3 January 2019 Retrieved 3 January 2019 Kenneth Silber Down to Earth The Apollo Moon Missions That Never Were NASA Libration of the Moon a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help dead link a b The Dark Side of the Moon 18 January 2013 Dark No More Exploring the Far Side of the Moon 29 April 2013 J J Gillis P D Spudis 1996 The Composition and Geologic Setting of Lunar Far Side Maria Lunar and Planetary Science 27 413 Bibcode 1996LPI 27 413G M Jutzi E Asphaug 2011 Forming the lunar farside highlands by accretion of a companion moon Nature 476 7358 69 72 Bibcode 2011Natur 476 69J doi 10 1038 nature10289 PMID 21814278 S2CID 84558 Near side far side impact crater counts by David Morrison and Brad Bailey NASA http lunarscience nasa gov question 3318 Accessed 9 January 2013 Messer A ndrea Elyse 9 June 2014 55 year old dark side of the moon mystery solved Penn State University Retrieved 27 June 2016 How much moon do we see EarthSky org earthsky org Retrieved 6 February 2019 a b c Ley Willy April 1966 The Re Designed Solar System For Your Information Galaxy Science Fiction pp 126 136 NASA NSSDCA Spacecraft Details nssdc gsfc nasa gov a b c Luna sputnik Zemli Great Soviet Encyclopedia ATLAS OBRATNOJ STORONY LUNY Ch 1 Moscow USSR Academy of Sciences 1960 Launius Roger D Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology 1960 www hq nasa gov in Russian Chronology 1804 1980 to the 150th anniversary of GAISh Moscow State University observatory MSU a b c in Russian Moon maps and globes created with the participation of Lunar and Planetary Research Department of SAI SAI Sphaera the Newsletter of the Museum of the History of Science Oxford www mhs ox ac uk NASA NSSDCA Spacecraft Details nssdc gsfc nasa gov Atlas Obratnoy Storony Luny p 2 Moscow Nauka 1967 Observing the Moon Throughout History Adler Planetarium Archived from the original on 22 December 2007 Retrieved 1 December 2020 Works of the Department of lunar and planetary research of GAISh MGU selena sai msu ru in Russian Moon Maps MSU Discussion Space Policy 14 1 5 8 1998 Bibcode 1998SpPol 14 5 doi 10 1016 S0265 9646 97 00038 6 Jones Andrew 14 June 2018 Chang e 4 relay satellite enters halo orbit around Earth Moon L2 microsatellite in lunar orbit SpaceNews Zegler Frank Kutter Bernard 2 September 2010 Evolving to a Depot Based Space Transportation Architecture PDF AIAA SPACE 2010 Conference amp Exposition AIAA p 4 Archived from the original PDF on 24 June 2014 Retrieved 25 January 2011 L2 is in deep space far away from any planetary surface and hence the thermal micrometeoroid and atomic oxygen environments are vastly superior to those in LEO Thermodynamic stasis and extended hardware life are far easier to obtain without these punishing conditions seen in LEO L2 is not just a great gateway it is a great place to store propellants L2 is an ideal location to store propellants and cargos it is close high energy and cold More importantly it allows the continuous onward movement of propellants from LEO depots thus suppressing their size and effectively minimizing the near Earth boiloff penalties Chinese spacecraft makes first landing on moon s far side Times of India Associated Press 3 January 2019 Retrieved 3 January 2019 China aims to land Chang e 4 probe on far side of moon Xinhua English News 8 September 2015 Archived from the original on 10 September 2015 Chang Kenneth 26 February 2020 China s Rover Finds Layers of Surprise Under Moon s Far Side The Chang e 4 mission the first to land on the lunar far side is demonstrating the promise and peril of using ground penetrating radar in planetary science The New York Times Retrieved 27 February 2020 Li Chunlai et al 26 February 2020 The Moon s farside shallow subsurface structure unveiled by Chang E 4 Lunar Penetrating Radar Science Advances 6 9 eaay6898 Bibcode 2020SciA 6 6898L doi 10 1126 sciadv aay6898 PMC 7043921 PMID 32133404 NASA Department of Energy Join Forces on Innovative Lunar Experiment 6 March 2023 Stenger Richard 9 January 2002 Astronomers push for observatory on the moon CNN Archived from the original on 25 March 2007 Retrieved 26 January 2007 M B Duke B C Clark T Gamber P G Lucey G Ryder G J Taylor 1999 Sample Return Mission to the South Pole Aitken Basin PDF Workshop on New Views of the Moon 2 Understanding the Moon Through the Integration of Diverse Datasets 11 Thar s Gold in Tham Lunar Hills Daily Record 28 January 2006 Retrieved 26 January 2007 Schmitt Harrison 7 December 2004 Mining the Moon Popular Mechanics Archived from the original on 15 October 2013 Retrieved 7 October 2013 a b c d e Chang e 4 s moon landing site named China Daily 17 February 2019 Retrieved 16 February 2019 a b c d e IAU Names Landing Site of Chinese Chang e 4 Probe on Far Side of the Moon International Astronomical Union 15 February 2019 External links EditLunar and Planetary Institute Exploring the Moon NASA takes first video of dark side of the Moon Lunar and Planetary Institute Lunar Atlases Ralph Aeschliman Planetary Cartography and Graphics Lunar Maps Archived 29 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine Full Moon Atlas Lunar Far Side at lunarrepublic com Northwest Africa 482 only meteorite believed to have originated from the far side of the Moon Moon articles in Planetary Science Research Discoveries Merrifield Michael Far Side of the Moon Sixty Symbols Brady Haran for the University of Nottingham LIFE magazine Nov 9 1959 article about first photos Portals nbsp Geology nbsp Astronomy nbsp Stars nbsp Outer space nbsp Solar System nbsp Science Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Far side of the Moon amp oldid 1181369084, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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