The Moon’s far side was first photographed in 1959
Because the Moon is tidally locked, Earth never sees the far side. The Soviet Luna 3 probe swung past in October 1959 and returned the first grainy images of that hidden hemisphere.
Later orbiters mapped it in detail, revealing more craters and fewer dark maria than the near side. Chang’e-4 later landed there in 2019.
A face we never saw from home needed a spacecraft to introduce it. Exploration turns the unknown hemisphere into mapped ground.
Comments
0 comments