What is on Dark Side of the Moon?

Cracking the Code of the Moon’s Hidden Face

We all know the Moon, right? That trusty nightlight hanging in the sky, always showing us the same old face. But have you ever stopped to wonder what’s lurking on the other side? For ages, it was a complete mystery, and even now, it’s still unveiling secrets. Forget calling it the “dark side,” though – it gets plenty of sun! The real darkness was just our own ignorance about it. Let’s call it the far side, shall we?

Craters Galore and a Whole Lotta “Huh?”

The far side is like the Moon’s rebellious teenage phase – a total contrast to the near side we’re so used to seeing. You know those big, dark splodges called maria on our side? They’re like ancient lava lakes. Well, the far side barely has any! It’s mostly a crazy quilt of craters, like someone went wild with a cosmic hammer. Seriously, only about 1% of the far side is covered in maria, compared to a whopping 35% on the near side. What’s that all about?

And speaking of craters, you’ve got to hear about the South Pole-Aitken Basin. This thing is HUGE. We’re talking one of the biggest impact craters in the entire solar system. Imagine a hole stretching over 2,200 kilometers (that’s like driving from New York to Dallas!) and plunging 13 kilometers deep. It’s basically a giant scar from the Moon’s rough-and-tumble past, giving us clues about what’s going on deep down in the Moon’s mantle.

Oh, and get this: the far side’s crust is way thicker than the near side’s. Some scientists think it’s because the Moon got whacked by a smaller moon way back when, or maybe it just slowly gathered more space dust after a big collision. Whatever the reason, that thick crust and the lack of lava flows are why it’s so crater-crazy over there.

Hello, Far Side! (Finally!)

So, how did we even see this hidden face? Well, back in 1959, the Soviets sent a spacecraft called Luna 3 to snap the first pictures. Talk about blurry! But even those grainy images showed us that the far side was a totally different beast. The Soviet Academy of Sciences even put out a whole atlas dedicated to it in 1960! Then, in 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts got the ultimate view – they were the first humans to actually see the far side with their own eyes. Can you imagine what that must have been like?

But landing there? That was a whole other ballgame. Because the far side is always facing away from us, you can’t just radio signals straight from Earth. That’s why all the early landings were on the near side. But then, in January 2019, China’s Chang’e-4 mission pulled off the impossible: the first-ever landing on the far side! They even sent out a little rover, Yutu-2, to poke around the South Pole-Aitken Basin and send back data. Talk about a game-changer!

And the plot thickens! In June 2024, Chang’e-6 brought back the first-ever samples from the far side. Can you believe it? Scientists are already buzzing about it, confirming ancient volcanic activity dating back billions of years! It’s like the Moon is whispering secrets from its past. Plus, a European Space Agency probe tagged along and found negative ions on the surface, which is giving us a new perspective on how the Moon interacts with the solar wind. Mind. Blown.

The Quietest Place in the Universe?

Here’s a cool thought: the far side could be the perfect spot for listening to the universe. See, Earth is noisy – radio waves bouncing all over the place. But the far side is shielded from all that interference. It’s like a giant, natural radio silence zone. Astronomers have been dreaming about building radio telescopes there for ages, so we can pick up super-faint signals from the early universe. NASA’s even got a program called ROLSES checking out the environment near the Moon’s south pole, and they’re planning a mission called LuSEE-Night in 2026 to really explore the possibilities. Who knows what we’ll hear?

What’s Next?

The far side is still calling our name, and there are more missions on the horizon. Draper Laboratory is planning a landing near Schrödinger Basin in 2025, and Firefly Aerospace is sending their Blue Ghost Mission 2 in 2026. They’re all itching to dig deeper into the far side’s geology, seismic activity, and magnetic field. And with those Chang’e-6 samples still being analyzed, we’re bound to unlock even more secrets about the Moon’s past and its place in the solar system.

The far side of the Moon isn’t just a blank slate anymore. It’s a puzzle, a treasure trove, a whole new world waiting to be explored. And who knows? Maybe one day, we’ll all get to see it for ourselves. Now that’s something to look forward to.