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Hidden side of the Moon// Credit: NASA
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A camera aboard one of the NASA's GRAIL spacecraft sent to Earth a rare photograph of the far side of the Moon The image will be used by American children to study the lunar surface.
Both GRAIL spacecraft, which reached the lunar orbit in the last year again, aim to get satellite images to provide them to school children. Even their names (Ebb and Flow) were chosen for the fourth-grade students. Each is equipped with a camera called MoonKAM. The images were obtained in a test of the spacecraft Ebb, on January 19.
The 30-second video can be viewed below
In the video, the north pole of the moon is visible on the top screen, while the ship sails toward the south pole. You can see the existence of dozens of craters.
This is an extremely rare sight. During its rotation around the Earth, the Moon remains only one face-to here. The other side, which remains hidden, is known as hidden side. He was first photographed in 1959 by a Soviet probe, in 1968 and only a human being able to see him directly, during the Apollo 8 mission.
Launched in September, the ships will make periodic corrections in its path until you reach a circular orbit around the satellite, to an altitude of 55 kilometers. The camera on board the Flow will be tested in future. The goal of NASA is asking for American students to choose areas of the lunar surface to be photographed, and send images directly to them. Ships are the first fully dedicated to educating the public.
Source Galileu.
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