Make new friends, but keep the old.
This new photo from the Artemis II crew features a combined view of the Moon’s near and far sides.
🌓 The near side, visible on the right, is identifiable by the dark splotches that cover its surface, created early in the Moon’s history when it was volcanically active. This is the side of the Moon we can see from Earth.
The large crater west of the lava flows is Orientale basin, a nearly 600-mile-wide crater that straddles the Moon’s near and far sides. The Artemis II crew are the first people to ever see the full Orientale Basin.
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🌗 Everything to the left of the crater is the far side, the hemisphere we don’t get to see from Earth because the Moon rotates on its axis at the same rate that it orbits round us.
