Re:Water Found Deep Inside the Moon
by sqeaky on Thursday August 24, 2017 @01:56PM
(#15092414)
> Only one question though: If that is true, then why do they call it "the dark side of the Moon"?
This doesn't refer to sunlight, it refers to radio communications. The back of the Moon, relative to Earth cannot receive any kind of signal we can send without some kind of artificial relay. Because the moon it tidally locked with the Earth the same side always faces us.
So the back side is always dark to our radio even though it has about a 28 earth long "day". Any (non-polar) spot on the Moon gets about 14 Earth days of light and then another 14 of darkness, corresponding with the phases of the moon we see here.
This doesn't refer to sunlight, it refers to radio communications. The back of the Moon, relative to Earth cannot receive any kind of signal we can send without some kind of artificial relay. Because the moon it tidally locked with the Earth the same side always faces us.
So the back side is always dark to our radio even though it has about a 28 earth long "day". Any (non-polar) spot on the Moon gets about 14 Earth days of light and then another 14 of darkness, corresponding with the phases of the moon we see here.