Astronomy Picture of the Day - Lunar Farside

NASA ^ | 10 Oct. 2026 | Credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State Univ. / Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: 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. A 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 dark, smooth maria.

[MtnClimber]

To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[SkyDancer]

Imagine what those hits would have looked like if they hit Earth.

[MtnClimber]

[Billthedrill]

...the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel

You're not gonna find the secret Nazi base that way.

[ComputerGuy]

How large is a pixel?

[No name given]

Wow.

[DFG]

[MtnClimber]

Post 5 is where the astronauts found the alien Mt Rushmore.

[simpson96]

Glad we ended up locked in with the more interesting looking side.

[telescope115]

Bumpy….

[telescope115]

Bumpy….

[Menehune56]

[Nateman]

The Soviet Union took pictures of the far side first. They used American film to do it. It was the same film from the American balloons they shot down floating over their territory .

[blueunicorn6]

Mmmmmmmmm………

A delicious hamburger roll.

Used to make delicious cheeseburgers.

[farm_kid]

It appears the western hemisphere was processed separately from the eastern. You can see the vertical mosaic seam in the center toward the bottom. Observe that the maria in the east appear to be raised instead of sunk.

By doing nothing more than simply rotating the image 180 degrees, what was raised before is now sunk, and what was sunk is now raised. It's kind of an interesting effect.

[MtnClimber]

And all that is now

And all that is gone

And all that's to come

And everything under the sun is in tune (everything)

But the sun is eclipsed by the moon -

- Pink Floyd - Eclipse (From the album The Dark Side of the Moon)

[Paal Gulli]

"Imagine what those hits would have looked like if they hit Earth."

They'd have made much smaller dents because earth's atmosphere both slows them down and burns away a lot of the mass.

[Paal Gulli]

A buddy of mine once tried to goad me into an argument by telling me the moon doesn’t have a dark side.

I countered that it most certainly did because one side is always dark. It just isn’t the same side that was dark was a second ago.

Then I blew his mind and told him the moon isn’t earth’s only natural satellite, it’s just the only one we choose to call ‘a moon.”