Ever Seen the Other Side of our Moon?

Called the Far Side, it is the face never seen when we look up at the moon - no matter where you are on Earth!
Synchronous rotation is the reason why we are unable to see its other side.
Optical Illusions are everywhere! Did you know the moon only 'appears' bigger on the horizon than when it is high on the sky? aka psychological effect

*2nd rendition

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Moon
• night
• sky
• moonlight
• lunar
• luna
• Far
• Side
• Apollo
• mission
• astronomy
• science
• physics
• engineering
• solar
• system
• universe
• crater
• surface
• space
• biology
• chemistry
• astrophysics
• synchronous
• rotation
• Earth
• orbit
• satellite

[StellarBlue1]

Thanks Garcia!

[MariaGarcia281]

@StellarBlue1 no prob ;-)

this is the sort of stuff I wish they would have shown me in school

[MariaGarcia281]

PS, don't miss the first total lunar eclipse in two years! It will grace the sky the night of Monday, Dec. 20, 2010 (natures Christmas present).

[MariaGarcia281]

Source: NASA (06-17-2010)

Collisions between galaxies are a fairly common occurrence in the universe. Our Milky Way galaxy will crash into the Andromeda galaxy in a few billion years. Galaxies tangle together, kicking gas and dust all around. Often the battered galaxies are left with tails of material stripped off during the violence.

[MariaGarcia281]

Interesting facts from NASA website:

The tidal interaction between the Earth and the Moon is causing the Moon to slowly spiral farther away from Earth. Long ago, the Moon was much closer to the Earth, and looked larger in the sky.

[sparkeones]

How beautiful it is!

It's a shame that is so far from me :(

Que hermosa es!

Es una pena que este tan lejos de mi :(

[Ziru322]

I got into a huge argument with my brother about the moon. He believed that you see all sides of the moon and he could not understand synchronous rotation. He was willing to bet me one hundred dollars, and I finally showed him this page. Anyone have a brother that will argue about everything with you. I tell him the sky is blue he would say its green just for the sake of arguing. Note he is 21 so he should of known this already. AHH anyways just had to vent that lol.

[MrShnizzle69]

I'll see you on the Dark Side of The Moon!

[TheRjjrjjr]

You do great videos! Please keep them coming!

[baskoffie]

It can also appear bigger if the air is moist, because of the magnifying effects of water (vapor).

[skoaile]

@jonaskelley thats what u think

[jonaskelley]

it's nice that we get to at least see the more interesting side of the moon, the far side is rather plain and boring.

[james3244]

@MariaGarcia281 Also, according to NASA; during the galaxy collisions, hardly any stars and other planetary objects will collide due to gravity and the vast distances between them.