Lunar Farside
Tidally locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth. From lunar orbit, the Moon's farside can become familiar, though. In fact this sharp picture, a mosaic from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide angle camera, is centered on the lunar farside.
Part of a global mosaic of over 15,000 images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011, the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the farside looks very different from the nearside covered with smooth dark lunar maria. The likely explanation is that the farside crust is thicker, making it harder for molten material from the interior to flow to the surface and form the smooth maria.
Image and info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State Univ. / Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
#nasa #space #science #moon
Pink Floyd
ReplyDeleteAlbedo 0.12, similar to asphalt, a third of that of the Earth. Hard to reconcile with the nighttime spectacle (of the other side).
ReplyDeleteGreat picture!
ReplyDeleteMichael Schuh But the 'dark side' of the moon is simply the shadowed side which changes as the moon orbits Earth. Each place on Moon surface [except at its poles perhaps] spends about 14 days sunbathing per month and the rest in shadow.
ReplyDeleteMark Peaty when it's night on the near side the Earth shines bright in that night, when it's night of the far side it's really dark. I don't know how much of a difference it makes, but it should make some.
ReplyDeleteThe article sighted even stated the lunar surface temp can vary from +200 to -200 °C, and that is same for near and far side, so no, not so good for keeping something frozen. Get a distance from the equator and you'd be good though... on either side
ReplyDeleteincidentally, for more great images like this, google maps/satellite now allows you to zoom in on the moon and also mercury, mars and ISS - check it out by switching to satellite view and then scrolling/zooming back from earth as far as possible - you should then see the options on left hand side
ReplyDelete