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fliptop [soylentnews.org] writes:

We can't see the far side of the moon from Earth because the two bodies are tidally locked. NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory [nasa.gov] has captured a series of pictures as the moon passed in front of the sunlit side of Earth [theguardian.com] and will keep doing so about twice a year:

The images, taken on 16 July, show the moon moving across the Pacific Ocean towards North America. Its far side is shown in detail owing to sunlight hitting it, revealing a crater and a large plain called the Mare Moscoviense.

[...] Associate Professor Michael Brown, an astronomer at Monash University, said the images of the far side of the moon were "captivating".

"It's unusual because you need a spacecraft that has gone beyond the moon to get a picture of the moon like this," he said. "This was taken around one million miles from Earth. We don't normally get that perspective."

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