Locked
in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its well-known near side
to Earth. But from lunar orbit, Apollo astronauts also grew to know the
Moon's far side. This sharp picture from Apollo 16's mapping camera shows
the eastern edge of the familiar near side (left) and the strange and heavily
cratered far side of the Moon. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface
of the far side looks very different from the near side which is covered
with smooth dark lunar maria. The likely explanation is that the far side
crust is thicker, making it harder for molten material from the interior
to flow to the surface and form the smooth maria. |
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Apollo
16 metric camera image of the Moon's eastern limb and far side. The lower
left part of the image shows a portion of the moon visible from Earth. The
dark area at the 8:00 position on the edge is Mare Crisium. To the right
of that is Mare Smythii. The upper right area shows the heavily cratered
lunar far side. The Moon is 3475 km in diameter and North is at 10:30 in
this image. |
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