LONDON: From nearly 16 lake kilometers away, a NASA camera has captured a stunning view of the far side of the moon as it moved in front of the sun-lit side of Earth last month. The images show the fully illuminated ‘dark side’ of the moon that is never visible from Earth.
The lunar far side lacks the large and dark basaltic plains (called maria) that are so prominent on the Earth-facing side. A thin sliver of shadowed area of moon is visible on its right side.
“It is surprising how much brighter Earth is than the moon. Our planet is a truly brilliant object in dark space compared to the lunar surface,” said said Adam Szabo, project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
