NASA Unveils the Dark Side of the Moon in a New Video (VIDEO)

NASA has unveiled a new video of the far side of the moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has caught images of the moon's far side and now, NASA has constructed a video that shows and explains exactly what the far side is like.

The moon rotates around the Earth, but only keeps one side facing our planet. This means that we never see the "far side" of the moon in the sky. Just like the near side, though, the far side goes through a complete cycle of phases. However, the terrain on the far side is quite different from the near side; it lacks the large, dark spots known as maria that make up the familiar "man in the moon" appearance on the near side.

The far side actually has numerous craters of all size crowded together. In addition, the far side is home to one of the largest and most ancient impact features in the solar system: the Pole-Aitken basin. This is visible as a slightly darker "bruise" that covers the bottom third of the moon.

The far side of the moon was only seen after 1959, which is when the Soviet Luna 3 probe returned a handful of grainy images of this side of the moon. When the LRO was launched 50 years later, our understanding of the far side of the moon improved drastically. Now, scientists have created extremely detailed and accurate maps of the far side; in fact, these maps were used to create the imagery seen in the latest video.

In NASA's new video, you can see the far side of the moon in extreme detail. You can watch it for yourself below, courtesy of YouTube.

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).