Platform to Study the Universe

Many little impact craters litter the far side of the moon. In the upper left quadrant lies a darker crater that contrasts a lot of the light grey color surrounding it. It is a stand alone dark grey crater encircled by many smaller lighter craters. In the southern part of the far side of the moon, almost a quarter of it, has a darker splotch that has smaller impact craters layered on top.
The far side of the lunar surface is captured here like never before. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Wide Angle Camera (WAC) captured this mosaic in monochrome mode. This pieced together photo was the first of its kind as a resource to the scientific community. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University.
NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

The Moon also serves as a platform for understanding the rest of the Universe. The lack of an atmosphere allows the full electromagnetic spectrum to be visible from the lunar surface. The far side of the Moon is the only known place in the Solar System permanently shielded from Earth’s radio noise, meaning this is an ideal place to perform radio astronomy, which can enable astrophysicists to investigate a period of time known as the Dark Ages, an epoch shortly after the Big Bang when stars and galaxies had not yet formed in the expanding Universe.

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Perseverance Rover

Parker Solar Probe

Juno