The Two-Faced Moon

By P. Surdas Mohit

Investigators are still struggling to understand why the near and far sides of our celestial neighbor are so fundamentally different

Astronomy Geology

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May-June 2008

Volume 96, Number 3
Page 210

DOI: 10.1511/2008.71.210

Everyone has seen the visible face of the Moon, but have you ever wondered what the other side looks like? In October 1959, the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 snapped the first ever picture of the lunar far side. Astonishingly, it was revealed as strikingly different from the Moon's more familiar hemisphere.

Russell Croman/Photo Researchers, Inc.

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