People often say “the dark side of the moon” while referring to the lunar face that can’t be seen from the earth, it always refers to the far side of the moon, which despite pointing away from the earth sees as much sunlight as the side facing the earth. So the dark side of the moon isn’t actually dark. The reason why it exists is because of a physics phenomenon known as the tidal locking. In the next few sections, we will be getting into more details about it. Now, let us know in detail about the dark side of the moon.
What is the Dark Side of the Moon?
Whenever we look at the sky in the night to see the moon, it appears the same every time. No matter how we see the moon or from where we see the moon, it always seems to feature the same landscape. The side of the moon which we are never able to see being on earth is known as the ‘dark side of the moon.’ It would be wrong to say that this side of the moon is considered as the dark side of the moon is dark. This side never faces the earth and is visible only from space.
Dark Side of the Moon Discovery
In 1959, a Soviet space probe, Luna 3 was sent to space as a part of the Luna program. It sent back the images of the moon which were never seen by the people on the earth. These images were of the dark side of the moon which is never visible to us.
Why Can’t We See The Dark Side Of The Moon?
Well, we cannot see the dark side of the earth because the moon is tidally locked to the earth. The earth rotates on its axis continuously and so does the moon. The time required by the Moon to rotate about its axis exactly matches to the time needed for orbiting the earth since earth and moon are tidally locked. In simple words, the rotational period and the orbital period of the moon are the same. Therefore, we can see only one side of the moon. In other words, we can say that due to the sync in rotation and revolution of earth and moon, only one side of the moon always faces the earth, thereby another side which is never seen by us is called the dark side.
What is The Temperature on The Moon?
The temperature on the moon is extreme from boiling hot to chilling cold which is dependent on the sun’s position. When the sunlight reaches the surface of the moon, the temperature is 127℃ and when the sun goes down, the temperature is -173℃. On the moon, day time lasts for 13.5 days and nighttime lasts for 13 days.
RELATED POSTS
View all
