Behold, the Moon as you've never seen it before

[n2doc]

If something about this animation strikes you as unfamiliar, don't worry, you're not imagining things; though the Moon does rotate about its axis as it orbits Earth, you've never in your life seen it spin quite like this.

The Moon is tidally locked to Earth, forever hiding one of its faces from those of us kicking it planetside. Owing to a phenomenon known as libration, it's actually possible to spot as much as 59% of the Moon's surface. But the remaining 41% – the so-called "far side," was for many years a complete mystery.

Via NASA APOD:

The above time-lapse video starts with the standard Earth view of the Moon. Quickly, though, Mare Orientale, a large crater with a dark center that is difficult to see from the Earth, rotates into view just below the equator. From an entire lunar month condensed into 24 seconds, the video clearly shows that the Earth side of the Moon contains an abundance of dark lunar maria, while the lunar far side is dominated by bright lunar highlands. Two new missions are scheduled to begin exploring the Moon within the year, the first of which is NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE). LADEE, which launched just over a week ago, is scheduled to begin orbiting the Moon in October and will explore the thin and unusual atmosphere of the Moon. In a few months, the Chinese Chang'e 3 is scheduled to launch, a mission that includes a soft lander that will dispatch a robotic rover.

more

http://io9.com/behold-the-moon-as-youve-never-seen-it-before-1325747252

[Berlum]

1. This demands the inevitable youtube video

[cvoogt]

5. much better

with that as a soundtrack

[suffragette]

10. Beat me to it

My first thought as well.

[gopiscrap]

2. that's pretty cool

[Wounded Bear]

3. Good stuff! Thanks! nt

[L0oniX]

4. Those 2 huge impact craters show somewhat what we'd be in for if something big hit earth.

[MisterP]

8. naw, the original Kuiper belt was purged by Neptune

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/skytel/beyondthepage/8594717.html

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. I still get a chuckle at the Sistine Chapel "creation of the sun and moon"...

The backside is clearly visible.

[FailureToCommunicate]

16. Major 'wardrobe malfunction'

We just saw that on our recent trip to Italy. What a (hard to find) hoot!

[agent46]

20. That's a classic example

That's a classic example of what we would nowadays call an "easter egg." I suspect many of the classical genius artists of the day "sponsored" by the Pope during those centuries harbored ambivalent feelings toward Mother Church.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. This was painted in the wake of the Inquisition...

The Church was confiscating estates by accusing people of being devil worshipers.

Everyone knew it was theft.

[RedCloud]

6. Where are those secret moon bases on the dark side?

Have they been edited away?

[Diclotican]

7. n2doc

n2doc

Our closest drabant - the Moon - roughly haft the size of the earth - and born out of a gigantic collision between two planet sized planetoid in the early stages of our solar systems existents. And also a moon who have been very, very important for the continue exist of life as we know it - from the early beginning - when the Moon was more closely to our own planet - to where it is today. In fact most spices here on earth - have one connection or another to the moon - and specially our own species the humans have evolved in "close" connection to our moon.. At the present speed the moon is traveling up wards 2cm a year - exactly the same it takes for our finger nails to grow 2 cm nails.. And even as many of the other animals and creatures have been around for millions of years - the influence from the moon can not be understated either...

And the moon itself is a great sight - when full moon.. Thankfully I have grown up out in the country side - and have always been one of the ones who have wondered about the night sky - that be the moon - or the grand universe... One day I hope humans will be a space fearing creature - of course in the confinement of star ships - but I guess that is a few years into the future

Our wonderfully moon - who have been there, as a kind of "guardian" for the earth - born out of the ashes of an collision of catastrophic events...

Diclotican

[progree]

14. My understanding - without the moon, we might not exist, it keeps the earth from wobbing

Wobbling would cause frequent climate changes that would make it hard for higher forms of life to evolve. Something I read a long time ago. I did a quick google search: the moon keeps the earth from wobbling

But in 5 minutes couldn't find anything authoritative. The Wikipedia article on the moon doesn't seem to say anything about this.

[Diclotican]

15. progree

progree

It is correct -without the Moon to kind of stop Earth from wobbling between 23 degrees and 25 degrees angles - most higher forms of life would have had great problems evolve.. I saw it on BBC panorama a while ago - and it was very interesting to look at how important the moon have been in the proses of making earth what it is today.. In some cases our Moon have been instrumental in making sure our own planet have survived the worst hits of meteors and its like over the eons..

If you have the time - BBC have a lot of informative programs on you tube where you can go into it all - and discover how important our closest nabour in the universe really have been for our evolving from tiny creatures - to our present setting... It is rather intesting to look at how important - and how influential the Moon have been for the last 4 billion years....

And our moon will at least, for the foreseeable future (at least a billion year, plus minus some years) be where it is - and influence our own planet as it does today..

Diclotican

[Lunabelle]

9. Wow thanks.

This is beautiful.

[Cartoonist]

12. Many of you know this . . .

but for those who don't:

Seeing this animation really shows the origin of the Jack & Jill rhyme. The first dark spot is the pail, then Jill, then Jack.
The breaking of the crown and the tumbling after part refers to the phases of the moon.

Here is one more fascinating bit of moon lore. At least to me.
They've named every crater, at least on the near side. When you rule up the latitude and longitude, the crater closest to dead center (0 degrees long, 1 minute lat) has the same name as my real ID.

[Surya Gayatri]

13. Always bringing us beautiful and interesting wonders...thanks, n2doc.

[Submariner]

17. Alien Moon Base

SUBJECT: Moon Sightings FILE: UFO50

Did you ever wonder why the Moon landings stopped and why
have we not tried to build a Moon Base. It seems a better and
easier idea than a floating space station?

According to Neil Armstrong the Aliens have a base on the
Moon and wanted us to get off and stay off the Moon! Milton
Cooper a Naval Intellegence Officer tell us that the
Intellegence community calls the Alien Base "Luna":

LUNA: The Alien base on the far side of the Moon. It
was seen and filmed by the Apollo Astronauts. A base, a mining
operation using very large machines, and the very large alien
craft described in sighting reports as MOTHER SHIPS exist there.
- Milton Cooper

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/moonbase.htm

[agent46]

22. That's a great Urban Legend

But the article states pretty clearly it's unconfirmed. Plenty of non-government witnesses - no one comes forward with recorded evidence? Why would Armstrong go to his death without getting this off his chest? Was he that patriotic even after being forced to lie in arguably the biggest cover-up in the history of civilization?

[Beartracks]

18. The LADEE launch is what brought us Rocket Frog!

And, I would venture to guess, also terminated Rocket Frog.



LOL, there's a shirt:




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[Cartoonist]

19. Please clarify

though the Moon does rotate about its axis as it orbits Earth
-
I don't think so. It may appear that way to an observer in space, but it does not actually rotate about its axis. The moon is like a ball on a string, with the string figuratively tied to the Earth. If you try this experiment in a field, to the person holding the string, the ball will always show only one face, but to a second observer, the ball will show all sides. The ball itself remains unrotating.
That is, it rotates around the Earth, but does not rotate about its axis