The Far Side of the Moon

You all must have looked up at the moon, right? The night sky is full of bright stars and the only natural satellite of our planet Earth. It feels so calm, relaxing and peaceful when we look at it. Some people aspire to go there someday, some might share their feelings with it, or some may simply look at it and think of how beautiful the Universe is!

Moon is a spherical body with definite mass. And unlike any other object, it has got two sides. But, do we get to see both sides of the Moon? Or is it just the same side we see every day? And if we are looking at just one side of it, then what is on the other side?? Is it the bunny that makes rice balls over there? Or is it icy cold? Are there any possible signs of life on it? Does it look different from the side we see every day? Is there water on the other side of the moon? Has anyone ever landed or will land on its far side in future?

To answer such questions, we first need to understand why we always see only one side of the moon. We know that every object in space exerts some gravitational pull on other objects of the Universe. In the same way, Earth’s gravitation pulls the Moon towards it so strongly that it changes its shape from spherical to oval. When the Moon comes back to its shape, the gravitational pull again changes its shape and hence, the Moon never completes a complete 360 angle on its axis. Thus, enabling us to see only one side. 

In the 1950s, a discovery was made by the soviet spacecraft about the back side of the Moon. When everyone on planet Earth was expecting the side to look the same as the near side, with lots of dark and light patches, everybody was astonished. Well, it turned out that the back side has a lot of craters and meteor impacts. Scientists believed that this might have happened due to the difference in thickness of the near and far sides. They assumed that the far side is far thicker and that no lava has flown on its surface, thus leaving it completely saturated.

Now the changes in the thickness of surfaces of the near and far sides of the Moon could have also occurred due to changes in the concentration of unstable radioactive elements that are present on the surface. Such elements are capable of melting the rocks hence, making the sides appear different from each other.

As we all know that temperature ranges for Moon can reach a boiling 250 degrees Fahrenheit (120 degrees Celsius, 400 Kelvin) during the daytime, to a chilly -208 degrees Fahrenheit -130 degrees Celsius, 140 Kelvin) during the nighttime, we cannot assure that the back side is more icy cold as compared to the near side. And, as far as bunny-making rice balls are concerned, it has been proved by scientists that there aren’t any bunnies there on the surface of the Moon. It is just a mythical tale that we all heard in our childhood and grew up to a certain age believing to be true! There is water trapped inside the craters of the moon, but we are not sure about it and we are looking ahead to discovering it super soon.

We might happen to find some other fascinating things on the back side of the Moon, which may help us know more about the Universe and how the other planets in the solar system were formed.  And we know that for sure, we will be able to discover many of the unanswered questions in a few decades. We are looking forward to unleash many uncovering about its surface, temperature variations, and hence building a sustainable space base camp for setting first foot on our neighboring planet Mars and looking for existing life on distant planets in the Universe. Shortly, we might even be able to send astronauts to the far side for even more discoveries. It can be someone from a different nation, or a person sitting right next to you, or it could even be YOU! But if you get a chance to get on the other side, even after knowing the negative consequences of it (such as signal loss, which happened in the case of Vikram lander sent by ISRO), would you still want to go and be a part of the mission?