The Dark side of the Moon has finally been captured fully illuminated. The images were taken July 16 and show the Moon moving toward North America over the Pacific Ocean.

From Earth, we can only see one side of the moon. In fact, it wasn’t until 1959 that humankind first saw the far side of the moon. 

This is because its position is tidally locked, which means that we always see the same face pointing towards Earth, although both sides receive equal amounts of light.

Associate Professor Michael Brown, an astronomer at Monash University, said, “It’s unusual because you need a spacecraft that has gone beyond the moon to get a picture of the moon like this.

“This was taken around one million miles from Earth. We don’t normally get that perspective.

“Because of its mission, this spacecraft is in a sweet spot directly in the direction of the sunlit Earth, meaning it’s seeing a completely sunlit moon, too. You get a whole new perspective on the moon. It looks very different from the side we see from Earth.”

Check this out:

for the actual motion gif image taken by NASA, click here.