NASA video shows dark side of the moon

Images of the dark side of the moon have been captured by a NASA satellite camera.

NASA camera captures the far side of the moon Source: NASA

The side of the moon that is never visible from Earth has been revealed by a camera aboard NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory.

The vision shows the moon as it moves in front of the sunlit side of Earth,  across the Pacific Ocean and towards North America.

Since the rotational period is exactly the same as the orbital period - a phenomenon called tidal locking - the same portion of the moon's sphere is always facing the Earth.  

According to NASA we first saw the far side of the moon in 1959 when the Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft sent images. 

“It is surprising how much brighter Earth is than the moon," said Adam Szabo,  scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the US.

"Our planet is a truly brilliant object in dark space compared to the lunar surface.”