Far side of the Moon

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/far-side-of-the-moon

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the first photographic documentation?Soviet Luna 3 probe, October 1959
2. What is the first human visual confirmation?Apollo 8 crew, December 1968
3. Why do we always see the same side of the Moon from Earth?The Moon rotates at the same speed it orbits Earth, so the same hemisphere always faces us. This is called synchronous rotation or tidal locking.
4. What did the Soviet Luna 3 mission show us about the Moon's far side?Luna 3 took the first photographs of the far side, revealing a landscape full of craters and very different from the near side.

Tidal Locking: A process where gravitational forces cause one body to orbit another in the same amount of time it rotates on its axis.
Epoch of Reionization: A period in the early universe when neutral hydrogen atoms were ionized by ultraviolet light from the first stars and galaxies.
Radio Frequency Interference (RFI): Unwanted signals that disrupt radio communications or astronomical observations, often originating from human technology.