A camera on board NASA’s gravity-mapping moon probes captured its first view of the dark side of the moon, a collection of images as part of a camera test in January. The clip serves as a prelude to the GRAIL probes’ secondary mission, which will allow schoolchildren to control its cameras and snap pictures of moon features.
In the video, the north pole is visible at the top of the screen as
the spacecraft flies south. About a third of the way down the moon you
see Mare Orientale, a 560-mile-wide impact basin that stretches over the
moon's near and far sides. The clip fades out just north of the lunar
south pole, according to NASA.
Comment by:
Ron Bogner (#024002) Entered on: 2012-02-07 14:41:59
Obviously this title is erroneous. The video was taken of the FAR side of the moon. The same side of the moon always faces Earth. The far side in not always dark as the close side is not always lit. Hence the phases of the moon.
