A View of the Dark Side of the Moon

Typically we don’t get to see the other side of the moon because it’s locked into our tides and does not rotate away. From Earth we have a limited view and the moon shows us the same face every night, but NASA’s camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite captured images of the dark side of the moon last July. We didn’t get our first look until 1959 when a Soviet satellite brought the first images back home. Check out the backside of our moon illuminated by the sun, passing over the Earth:

The camera is set up to observe the Earth, watching for signs of climate change from 1 million miles away.

moon passes in front of earth

It will be sending new color photos of the planet every day for our viewing enjoyment!

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