Humans are naturally obsessed with things we can't see. For centuries, that "thing" was the back of the moon. We call it the "dark side," which is technically a lie. It gets just as much sunlight as the side facing Earth. A more accurate name is the far side, and the photos from the far side of the moon we’ve managed to snag over the last few decades have flipped our understanding of the solar system upside down.
It’s weird.
Think about it. The moon is tidally locked. That basically means it rotates on its axis at the same speed it orbits Earth. Because of this gravitational dance, we only ever see one face. It’s like a person circling you while always keeping their eyes locked on yours. You never see the back of their head. Until 1959, nobody in human history knew what was back there. Some people thought there might be atmosphere, or even life.
Then the Soviet Union’s Luna 3 probe swung around the back.
The grainiest, most important photos in history
The first photos from the far side of the moon weren't high-def. Honestly, they looked like static on an old CRT television. Luna 3 was a marvel of "janky" engineering that somehow worked. It used a camera system that literally developed film on board in a little chemical lab, then scanned the negatives to transmit them via radio waves.
People were shocked. The far side looked nothing like the near side.
The side we see from our backyards is covered in maria—those big, dark, basaltic plains that look like a "man in the moon." But the far side? It was almost entirely rugged, light-colored highlands and craters. It looked like a completely different world. This sparked the "Lunar Farside Dichotomy," a puzzle that planetary scientists like those at NASA and the Lunar and Planetary Institute are still debating today. Why is one side so smooth and the other so battered?
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The Chang’e 4 revolution
Fast forward to 2019. China’s Chang’e 4 mission did something incredibly ballsy: it landed on the far side. Specifically, it touched down in the Von Kármán crater, which is part of the South Pole-Aitken basin. This is one of the largest, deepest, and oldest impact craters in the entire solar system.
The photos from the far side of the moon sent back by the Yutu-2 rover are breathtaking. They aren't grainy anymore. They’re sharp, panoramic, and strangely lonely. You see the reddish-grey dust, the sharp shadows of rocks that haven't been touched for billions of years, and the tracks of a tiny robot exploring a place where radio signals from Earth can't even reach.
To get those photos home, China had to park a relay satellite called Queqiao in a specific spot in space (the L2 Lagrange point) so it could see both the rover and the Earth at the same time. Without that bridge, the far side is a total "radio dead zone."
Why the far side looks so "messed up"
Scientists have some theories about the visual difference between the two sides. One popular idea is that back when the moon was a molten ball of chaos, the Earth was also incredibly hot. The side of the moon facing Earth stayed hot longer because of the planet's radiation. Meanwhile, the far side cooled down faster. This let the far side grow a much thicker crust.
When asteroids hit the near side, they punched through the thin crust and let lava bleed out, creating those smooth dark spots. On the far side, the crust was too thick. The asteroids just left dents.
It’s basically a giant shield.
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The far side takes the brunt of the hits. It protects us, in a way. When you look at high-resolution photos from the far side of the moon taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the sheer density of craters is claustrophobic. There’s almost no flat ground.
Debunking the "Dark Side" myths
Let's get real for a second. There are no alien bases back there. There are no secret cities or Nazi outposts like in the movies. We have mapped every square inch of the lunar surface down to a resolution of about 50 centimeters per pixel thanks to the LRO.
If there was a monolith or a base, we’d see it.
What we do see are fascinating geological features. Like the Schrödinger basin. Or the Tsiolkovskiy crater, which has a dark floor of old lava that looks like a black eye on the rugged face of the far side. These images aren't just pretty; they tell the story of how our corner of space formed.
The future of far side photography
The next decade is going to be wild. With the Artemis program and various international missions, we’re going back. This time with better cameras.
We’re talking about placing radio telescopes on the far side. Because it’s shielded from Earth’s "electronic noise" (all our cell phones and TV stations), it’s the quietest place in the nearby universe. It’s the perfect spot to listen to the earliest signals from the Big Bang.
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How to explore these images yourself
You don't have to be a NASA scientist to look at this stuff. Most of it is public domain.
- LROC Quickmap: This is basically Google Earth but for the moon. You can zoom in on the far side until you see individual boulders. It’s addictive.
- NASA’s Photojournal: Search for "Farside" and you'll find everything from the 1960s Apollo 8 shots (the first time humans saw it with their own eyes) to modern 4K renders.
- CNSA Archives: The Chinese Space Agency releases batches of Yutu-2 data that show the surface in incredible, gritty detail.
When you look at photos from the far side of the moon, you’re looking at a time capsule. The near side has been "repainted" by lava and human eyes for eons. The far side remains a raw, battered record of the early solar system’s violence. It’s the side of our neighbor that prefers to be left alone, and that’s exactly why we can’t stop looking at it.
Actionable steps for lunar enthusiasts
If you want to go deeper than just scrolling through Instagram reels of "space facts," start by downloading the LRO global mosaic. It allows you to toggle between different wavelengths. Seeing the far side in "topography mode" reveals mountains that make the Himalayas look small.
Also, keep an eye on the Artemis III mission updates. While the initial landings are near the South Pole (the "border" between the sides), the long-term goal involves permanent stations that will eventually give us a 24/7 high-definition live feed of the lunar far side.
For now, stick to the LROC QuickMap tool. It’s the most powerful way to realize just how small we are—and how much more there is to see on that big grey rock in the sky.