On January 3, 2019, humanity first saw what the far side of the moon looks like up close.
The Chinese probe "Chang'e-4" successfully made a lunar landing and sent images from the surface of the Earth satellite.
This was reported by Rossiyskaya Gazeta with reference to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The first photographs of the far side of the Moon are of high quality as usual, although they turned out to be surprisingly deserted. No spectacular craters, rock piles, or anything else.
Just a bare stone wasteland with small pits.
But the first color image of the far side of the Moon showed the Moon again in brown.
Promotional video:
However, China does not betray itself and one color was shown among ordinary black-and-white images. And on it, like in the photographs of the moon taken by the Chinese lunar rover "Jade Hare" in 2013, you can see the brown surface of the moon, and not the gray one that NASA usually shows.
A snapshot of the lunar surface from the Jade Hare (year 2013).
Image of the Moon from NASA from the Apollo 17 expedition.
At 11:40 Beijing time, one of the Chang'e-4 probe cameras captured the first close-up image of the moon's far side in human history and sent it back to Earth. According to CNSA, the probe deployed its antennas and deployed imaging equipment immediately after landing.
The device landed at 177.6 degrees east longitude and 45.5 degrees south latitude in Karman crater. Several pictures were also taken during the landing.
As noted in the CNSA, the mission carried out the first soft landing of a man-made vehicle on the far side of the Moon and established communication with the Earth, thereby opening a new chapter in the study of our planet's natural satellite.
This is especially important, since scientists believe the far side of the moon is more ancient, and the landing site of "Chang'e-4" is promising for studying the early history of both the moon itself and the entire solar system.
In addition, it was previously reported that one of the mission's tasks will be biological experiments with potato seeds, plants from the Tal cabbage family and silkworm eggs.
