News in Science

Earth from beyond the far side of the Moon

Earth Image We see a unique view of the far side of the Moon as it transits in front of Earth.

The image was captured by NASA's new space weather spacecraft from its perch 1.6 million kilometres away.

The moon's far side, which is not visible from Earth, lacks the large, dark, basaltic plains, called maria, which give the side facing Earth its characteristic 'man in the moon' appearance.

The dark patch on the Moon's upper left is the Mare Moscoviense or Sea of Moscow, while Tsiolkovskiy crater is visible in the lower left.

The Moon's close proximity to Earth keeps it gravitationally tidally locked with the same side always facing Earth.

Behind the Moon is the Earth, with the North Pole oriented towards the upper left of the planet as seen from the Deep Space Climate Observatory's (DSCOVR) point of view.

The North American land mass is in the upper centre, with part of South America on the upper right, and the Pacific Ocean taking up most of the rest of the globe from the DISCOVR's view point.

The image above and video below were taken over a five hour period on July 16, 2015.

DSCOVR's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera telescope can take images in a range of spectral filters from ultraviolet to near infrared.

The images were taken in quick succession using the red, green, and blue channels and then combined to achieve these images.

However, combining the three images, which are taken about 30 seconds apart produces a slight camera artefact on the edges of the Moon, because the Moon has moved along its orbit in relation to Earth between the time the first (red) and last (green) exposures were taken.

This produces a thin green offset on the right and slight red and blue (purple) offset on the left side of Moon when the three exposures are combined.

About twice a year, DSCOVR will capture images of the Moon and Earth together as the Moon's orbit crosses between the spacecraft and the Earth.

Humans first saw the lunar far side in 1959 when it was photographed by the Soviet Union's Luna 3 spacecraft.

Hosted by Stuart Gary, StarStuff takes us on a weekly journey across the universe. StarStuff reports on the latest news and discoveries in science, with a special focus on astronomy, space sciences and cosmology.



