When we gaze at the moon in the sky, its surface appears as dark and light patches, familiar to humans for millennia. But on its far side, the side not directly facing Earth, lies a different world, covered in impact craters and rugged mountains, as if its surface bears the scars of a cosmic battle that lasted billions of years.
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A photo published by NASA 's Astronomy Picture of the Day in October 2026 revived interest in this aspect. The image is a mosaic created from more than 15,000 photographs taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), revealing details of the far side with a precision unavailable to previous generations of astronomers.
At first glance, it might seem that the far side of the moon, exposed directly to space, receives more meteorite impacts than the near side, which is protected by Earth's massive body. However, scientists rule out this protection as the primary reason for the significant difference between the two sides.
Although the Earth is much larger than the Moon, it only blocks a very small portion of the surrounding sky, and therefore does not provide an effective shield against most objects approaching from different directions. In fact, its gravity can influence the trajectories of some objects, increasing the likelihood of them colliding with certain areas of the Moon's surface.
Studies indicate that both faces were subjected to extensive meteorite bombardment over billions of years, and that the difference in the number of visible craters is mainly due to the geological history of each, and not to one of them being largely protected from collisions.
On the near side, ancient lava flowed and filled vast impact basins, covering many of the former craters, to form the dark plains we see from Earth known as the "lunar seas".
As for the far side, it is dominated by a thicker crust, which hindered the spread of volcanic magma over large areas, so the ancient craters remained more clearly preserved.
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