The Moon is showing off a side we never get to see, thanks to video captured by the geniuses at NASA.
A 30-second video clip showing the far side of our tide-managing space friend has been recorded by one of NASA's twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL for short) spacecraft.
We've embedded the video below for your delectation. We've scoured the clip frame by frame for signs of alien life and come up empty, but you can clearly see the Moon's north pole at the top of the screen, with the south pole looming into view at the bottom of the screen as the craft zooms toward it.
NASA's detailed a few landmarks to look out for (in case you ever get lost on the dusty satellite), so see if you can spot the Mare Orientale, a 560-mile wide basin caused by the impact of an asteroid-sized object. It's got three concentic circles -- here's a picture if you need a clue.
A little to the left and near the bottom of the screen, space cadets will spy the 93-mile wide Drygalski crater, which boasts a recognisable star-shaped formation in the middle.
As if GRAIL wasn't enough, backronym fans will be delighted to learn the footage was nabbed using a MoonKAM, or 'Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle-school students', which will let kids select areas of the big rock to investigate, before having the photos sent back to them for study. And to think we made do with Jaffa Cakes for our lunar education.
The GRAIL mission comprises two craft, called Ebb and Flow. Ebb was the one that captured this footage, and each craft is about the size of a washing machine. Adorable!
Check out the footage below, and let us know what you think the Moon is hiding in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.
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Comments 7
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anonymous 2 February, 2012 20:52
I wouldn't expect you to spot much of anything else at that resolution and altitude.. let alone aliens. Pretty misleading article.
anonymous 3 February, 2012 10:05
But Where are the Iron Sky Moon Nazis?
anonymous 3 February, 2012 10:30
Luke Westaway you are an unbelievable stupid *******! this aint even the real moon! OMG you should get fired for publishing this diso-info propaganda rubbish........
billfred 3 February, 2012 15:57
@ all previous commenters
erm .... riiiight .... back to bed with your medicine.
anonymous 5 February, 2012 02:07
It's pretty sad that I can get better detail of the moon using my 8" telescope and a pocket camera. Come on NASA, what are you afraid of???!....pretty much everything??
anonymous 2 March, 2012 08:33
this is ridiculous!! this video doesn't prove anything at all. It's a well known fact there are or was structures on the far side of the moon. The "Shard" is said to be a rock or artifact that is almost a mile high. You can't see any detail on this video at all. I wouldn't trust anything NASA releases to the public. It's all sensored. There is a "black" NASA and "Red" NASA. Well this video goes under the "Red" or ridiculous.
anonymous 9 April, 2012 22:05
oh realy so you think the totaly out of focus crapy pic tels u no ailiens rofl lets wait till the chines releas the high res pics from the satalite they flew over at 100 km in hight i can tell u this thare are heeps of craters you canot see on this *hit image wtf is cnet playing at one thing that pises me off is the constant stream of crap pic on the web out of focus degradated images oh dear did i spell somthing wrong ffs