The lunar near side with Mare Crisium landing site
The lunar near side with Mare Crisium landing site
The Moon rotates around its own axis exactly once during its orbit around Earth. This is why we only ever see one hemisphere of Earth's satellite, which is referred to as its near side. The contrast between bright areas (lunar highlands) and dark regions (lunar lowlands) is striking and can be seen with the naked eye. The lunar highlands are formed of older, light-coloured aluminium silicate rocks, while the dark regions consist of iron- and magnesium-rich volcanic rocks. Blue Ghost has landed on such a volcanic plain in the basalt-filled Mare Crisium (upper-right edge of the image). This photo of the full Moon is a well-known telescope image taken by the Lick Observatory in California, USA, in 1956, using a special process on a photochemically coated glass plate.
