No matter what you know or hear about the Moon so far, there is no mysterious dark side of it that the Sun never illuminates. There is a side we never see from Earth, but it is not in constant darkness.
Former NASA scientist James O'Donoghue, who currently works for Japan's JAXA space agency, has released an animation explaining and proving that the Moon has no real and literal dark side.
"Remember not to say the dark side of the moon when you talk about the other side of the moon. This graphic shows that side of the moon is constantly in motion," O'Donoghue says.
In his animation, it is shown that sunlight falls on the surface of the Moon during one of its orbits around the Earth that lasts 29.5 days. All sides of the Moon in that period were at some point illuminated by sunlight.
The tidal forces of the Earth slowed down the Moon so much over time that its speed of rotation adjusted to its period of orbit around the Earth. This means that the Moon rotates only once around its axis during its orbit around the Earth. Therefore, only one side of the Moon can be seen from the Earth.
Half of the Moon is in darkness at any given time, but the thing is that that dark side is constantly moving so there is no constant dark side of the Moon.
Astronomers therefore prefer to use the term night side of the Moon, although the term dark side of the Moon is still more popular.
A Chinese spaceship became the first to land on the dark side of the moon on January 2 this year, the Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.
China’s National Space Administration said the Chang’e-4 robotic probe landed on the far side of the moon, which is never visible to Earth, at 10:26 a.m. Beijing time.
Xinhua also published the first photos showing the dark side of the moon.
"The probe, which consists of a lander and a rover, landed in a predetermined area at 177.6 degrees east longitude and 45.5 degrees south longitude on the opposite side of the moon," Xinhua said.
China launched Chang’e-4 on December 7 last year from the southwestern city of Xichang.
"The probe is expected to investigate the mineral composition and surface lunar structure of the far side of the moon, as well as perform low-frequency astronomical radio observations," the China International Media Organization (CGTN) said.
Describing the landing as historic, CGTN points out that the spaceship will be a key step in uncovering the mystery of the dark side of the moon.
I haven't read about the dark side of the moon so far,thank you