What is on the dark side of the Moon?

April 17, 2009 8:44pm CST
I must admit I didn't really know the answer of this question before I read an article about it. The answer is simple: There is no dark side of the moon! Actually - every part of the moon is illuminated at sometime by the sun. This misconception has come about because there is a side of the moon which is never visible to the earth. This is due to tidal locking; this is due to the fact that earth's gravitational pull on the moon is so immense that it can only show one face to us. Wikipedia puts it rather smartly thus: "Tidal locking occurs when the gravitational gradient makes one side of an astronomical body always fave another; for example, one side of the Earth's Moon always faces the Earth. A tidally locked body takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around its partner. This synchronous rotation causes one hemisphere constantly to face the partner body." I was wandering if I was the only one who knew that the moon has a dark side? :) G.
1 response
@r9cyber (29)
• United States
20 Apr 09
Yes, you are right. There is a side of the moon that is never visible to the earth. The Government relized this back in the 1960's and took advantage of it. There are now Government bases now on "the dark side of the moon". The reason why they are there is debatable. Research that r9cyber has done, shows evidence that these military bases are there as a first line defense against E.T. invasions. I also believe that they have been used and proven to work against such an attack.
22 Apr 09
Interesting research you made there... did you inspect the bases yourself? :)