NASA captures dark side of the moon on video

 

 

Have you ever wondered what's on the other side of the moon? The thought has tantalized people since the dawn of time, especially since the moon seems so near—yet its obverse side, so far from sight.

 

People on Earth only ever see one side of the moon because the moon's rotation and orbit are such that the same side faces us all the time.

 

Sight unseen, the other side of the moon has been the stuff of popular imagination, from Pink Floyd's eponymous album to Timo Vuorensola's cult classic movie, "Iron Sky". 

 

On August 5, NASA released the above composite video of the moon passing in front of the Earth. Because the actual satellite images used were taken in the daytime, both the Earth and the Moon's far side were illuminated.

 

However, this isn't the first time that the dark side of the moon has been photographed. The earliest known full photographs were taken by the Soviet Union's Luna 3 space probe in 1959, and published as an atlas by the Soviet Academy of Sciences the following year. — GMA News