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    Spacecraft Footage: The Far Side Of The Moon

    A camera on board one of Nasa's lunar spacecraft has captured video of the far side of the Moon.

    They are the first pictures sent back from one of the twin GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) spacecraft as it was pulled into the Moon's orbit over the New Year.

    The video scans the barren, dusty face - the oldest part of the Moon - all the way from the north to the south pole.

    Previously named GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B, the washing machine-sized spacecraft were named Ebb and Flow by US schoolchildren who won a nationwide contest.

    In the video, the north pole of the Moon is visible at the top of the screen as the spacecraft flies toward the lunar south pole.

    One of the prominent geological features seen on the lower third of the Moon is the Mare Orientale, a 560-mile-wide (900km) impact basin that straddles both the near and far side.

    The clip ends with rugged terrain just short of the lunar south pole.

    To the left of centre, near the bottom of the screen, is the 93-mile-wide (149km) Drygalski crater with a distinctive star-shaped formation in the middle.

    The formation is a central peak, created billions of years ago by a comet or asteroid impact.

     
    • Richard  •  3 months ago
      'Oldest part of the moon'?! Is it not all the same age or was some added afterwards?!
      • Annie 3 months ago
        Exactly what I thought!
      • Crazy 3 months ago
        They keep changing its shape, think they take some away then rebuild most be a tedious job, why dont they just leave it for a while and take a rest.
      • Biker B 3 months ago
        Its the mice they keep eating it NASA stands for Never A Straight Answer.
    • Supernova  •  High Wycombe, England  •  3 months ago
      Well I think any 'space' news is interesting if it increases our knowledge of the universe around us!
      • Biker B 3 months ago
        are you nuts ? people dont even know whats going on inside Iran, Syria, Burma, So why Ishould be arsed what is on the moon God knows.
      • Conrad 3 months ago
        Meanwhile... back in the real world...
      • David Morais 3 months ago
        Too right Supernova. Everything new i learn about space certainly fills my appetite. People like Biker - don't realise that we shouldn't give up moving forwards just because other nations or people want to remain primitive and stuck in the dark ages. People like Conrad - Don't realise our universe is part of our real world too, it's reality.
    • A Yahoo! User  •  3 months ago
      Erhm slightly confused, how can this be the oldest part of the moon, surely the other side did not come along later ?
      • Sue 3 months ago
        Please read Mike's explanation. And an excellent one it is too. Think volcanoes and all that new crust made from the spewing out of the magma from the core of the earth. Surtsey is younger than Madagascar...
      • Sue 3 months ago
        Sorry it was BatMark, not Mike.
      • Mike B 3 months ago
        But Mike's was quite good! Not as good as BatMarks, I agree :)
    • CLIFFORD  •  Ilford, England  •  3 months ago
      I am surprised 'Time Team' haven't arranged to a dig there to prove it
      • Gem 3 months ago
        Ooo I sooo volunteer!
      • D 3 months ago
        There is so much historic ordinance on the moon now that in fact there will eventually have to be historic preservation orders put on the sites to preserve them!
    • GNeuman  •  3 months ago
      And Tescos have already put in for planning permission........
      • Here we go again 3 months ago
        they were beaten to the prime spot by Mcdonalds
      • DAVID 3 months ago
        Amazing, comments here that are actually funny.
      • Biker B 3 months ago
        The cheese factory at Hawes has had all the cheese
    • Anon  •  Edinburgh, Scotland  •  3 months ago
      oh...no buildings,and other alien tec.
    • teddy  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      Far side? near side? off side? back side? Stick to the dark side! PINK FLOYD.
    • Rock Doctor  •  Reading, England  •  3 months ago
      The Moon is made of rock broken off from the surface of the Earth, no layering, no inner or outer core, no upper or lower mantle, no reworking of the surface because of the rock cycle as there are no volcanoes no plate techtonics and no atmosphere, the craters were made billions of years ago, the surface is a thick dust due to being bombarded with small meteorites grinding the surface, without the moon life on Earth would never have evolved for a number of reasons the main two are that the initial impact of the 2 planetoids tilted the Earth giving us the seasons and the second is that the moon was very much closer to us back then and the gravitational effects would have thrown vast tides around the world for 100's of millions of years stiring up the mutrients alowing the building blocks of life to form.
      There endeth the lesson.
    • Girosnooty  •  3 months ago
      If we see the man in the moon does it show the back of his head ?
    • Vidal  •  3 months ago
      mmm, looks no different to the side we can see --- Big deal!
    • shaun g  •  Manchester, England  •  3 months ago
      Didn't Pink Floyd capture it on vinyl years ago?
    • Mark  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      Where's the clangers??
    • A Yahoo! User  •  3 months ago
      WOW, what a lot of anger this is generating judging by the responses to some posts. Why can't people just respond intelligently without using abuse (even to the idiotic and antagonistic posters)? I hope mankind grows up a bit before true space exploration and colonisation begins otherwise we'll just be taking war and destruction to another place and if there is any intelligent life out there they'd proably zap us immediately.
    • Sue  •  3 months ago
      The far side is the oldest part of the Moon? Were the two hemispheres fitted together at a later date?
    • LIFE WILL GO ON IN SOME F ...  •  Manchester, England  •  3 months ago
      good place to redirect people comming in on the back of a wagon ,
    • val  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      where are the "Clangers & soup dragon" !!
    • Bluebottle  •  3 months ago
      Oldest part? Is that just bad journalism or can someone explain please?
    • big toby  •  3 months ago
      how can there be a oldest part of the moon thats like saying because your head comes out first you head is older than the rest of you CRAZY or what
    • LondonGirl  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      And when they got there, they discovered the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Far out, man...
    • Roy  •  Madrid, Spain  •  3 months ago
      Yes... " oldest part of the moon".... was something added later?
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