The pictures were captured by a specialist thermal camera as part of a Nasa mission to search for the presence of water on the moon.

The Thermoteknix camera also tookphotos of the earth and moon at distances as great as 560,000km and 850,000 km away.

It is the first time a space craft has travelled to the far side of the moon with a thermal imaging camera.

"The camera has worked flawlessly for nearly 100 days, and counting, in interplanetary space, Finish reading http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/6269338/First-thermal-pictures-of-dark-side-of-the-moon.html