Photo of the Day

The far side of the Moon, crossing Earth

Wednesday 7 October 2026

Luna 3 took the first photos of the Moon's far side on 7 October 1959.

The grey far side of the Moon passing in front of a fully lit Earth, whose blue oceans and swirling white clouds fill the frame behind it — Spacecraft image · 16 July 2015

NASA's camera on the DSCOVR satellite, parked about a million miles from Earth, caught the Moon passing between it and our planet. We are seeing the side of the Moon that never faces us, fully lit by the Sun.

Fun facts

The far side isn't dark. It gets just as much sunlight as the side we see; we never see it because the Moon is tidally locked and always shows Earth the same face. source ↗
The far side has far fewer of the dark lava plains we call lunar "seas". source ↗
China's Chang'e 4 made the first landing on the far side in January 2019. source ↗
Humans first saw the far side in grainy photos from the Soviet probe Luna 3 in 1959. source ↗

Image: NASA/NOAA (DSCOVR EPIC)
Licence: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons