Plus has anyone even seen the dark side of the moon?
Do we even know how many craters are on the dark side of the moon?
Folks see the dark side of the moon all the time, whenever it’s a new moon. It’s not always the same side that’s light or dark.
But if by “dark side”, you instead meant “far side”, then yes, the Apollo astronauts saw the far side, and anyone who wants to can see the photographs they took.
By “last crater recorded”, do you mean the last one to be catalogued or named, or do you mean the most recent one to form? And in either case, how large a crater are you looking for? They come in all sizes, and most of the very small ones have never been noticed, nor would anyone notice a new very small one being formed.
There is no dark side of the moon, just like there’s no dark side of the Earth. Apollo astronauts have seen the far side in orbiting the moon.
The Wikipedia article on the far side of the moon has a good photo showing all the craters. The far side is quite different from the near side : doesn’t have all the “seas”. Heavily cratered.
Okay I stand corrected so there is a far side with recorded crater hits and when was the last one you can see?
Did the moon protect the earth from these hits?
There is indeed a dark side of the Moon, and there is indeed a dark side of the Earth. We call the dark side of the Moon a ‘new moon’, and we call the dark side of the Earth ‘night’.
The most recently formed largish lunar crater is probably the one caused by the crash of the unplanned crash of the Beresheet lander in 2019. The most recent largish naturally formed crater may be the one caused by an explosive event witnessed in 2013, although I don’t know if the resulting crater has been identified. Small meteoroids cause small new craters all the time, so there isn’t really a clear answer to this question. Neither of these can be seen from the Earth with the unaided eye. Tycho is a fairly young crater (about 108 million years old) than can be pretty easily seen.
The moon is too far away to protect the Earth from impacts to any significant amount.
The Earth has an atmosphere that protects it from all but the larger metroid strikes.
Cratering on the moon is pretty much fractal, meaning no matter what scale you look at the moon on a map, you will see huge craters, big craters, medium craters, small craters, and tiny craters. On a large scale map, the “huge” craters can be hundreds of miles across and the “tiny” craters thousands of feet across. On a small scale map, “huge” craters can be thousands of feet across and “tiny” craters inches across. And it keeps going down–individual grains of “sand” have microscopic impact craters. So there is no (practical) end to the number of craters, and the number is increasing every minute of every day.
New craters appear on the moon daily, as various sized rocks collide with it.
The Lunar Reconnaissance orbiter has taken pictures of areas that have developed new craters since its last pass.
I can’t find it right now, but during the last lunar eclipse, some amatuer astronomers caught a flash of light, thought to be an impact event. I believe that the area was pictured before and after and a new crater was found. I’m pretty sure I saw this on a video on Fraser Cain’s channel, and I can’t find it right now, and google’s not turning anything up for me, so whatever grain of salt you want for that claim.
As far as large craters, ones that you can see with the naked eye or with a backyard telescope, I don’t think that any new ones have been recorded in recent history.
The OP was clearly asking about the side of the moon that is never visible from Earth. In that sense, due to tidal lock and our portion, there are “near sides” and “far sides” to the Moon, but the far side is not in perpetual darkness.
The dynamics of rotation of both the Earth and the Moon mean that at any given time, half of each body is in darkness, but that does not mean there is a dark side of the Moon with permanent boundaries, as the OP seemed to assume.
There are places on the Moon that are permanently shadowed regions. I guess they could be the dark side of the Moon.
Unless OP is thinking of Pink Floyd? But the Apollo astronauts were the only “eyeballs”.
The Soviets first sent a probe around the far side, and got photos and mapped it, which is why many features are Russian named. Wikipedia article.
Among many meanings of ‘dark’ you will find unseen, hidden, mysterious, unknown. It’s fair to say that the far side of the moon was unknown and mysterious until the first space probe orbited and took photos. And it’s still hidden. I think that ‘dark side’ is a fair description.
If I recall, a few years ago the impact from a meteor was observed by those looking at the Moon at the time.
This may have been ninja’d earlier in the thread.
Some of them, yes. I also expect the Earth took some hits that would have otherwise hit the Moon, but the traces of those have been erased by erosion and geological processes.
Aah the pedantry of some dopers is clear in this thread. The OP’s meaning is clear from the context.
It’s an interesting question. From the wiki on the far side of the moon, the moon has clearly shielded us from some impacts — only for those craters caused by a meteorite whose direction of travel aligned with both bodies when it struck. Roughly. But the earth with more gravity is a bigger ‘meteor magnet’ than the moon is — if I can use that term and I hope you understand its meaning.
With our atmosphere, many meteors do not last to become meteorites — those that strike the earth’s surface. So, we are protected by both the atmosphere and the moon. But the moon, well, its ‘shields are down’, permanently, if I can borrow a Star Trek phrasing.
ETA, more: I wonder if there is a database logging when meteorites strike the moon. And when the latest sizable craters (miles, not feet or inches or smaller) were formed from them.
And the fractal nature of the moon’s craters is fascinating too.
The meaning is clear. Whether or not the OP knew this is not.
I know quite a number of people who believe that there is actually a dark side of the moon that is in perpetual darkness. It is not an assumption that I would make, given the wording of the question, that the OP doesn’t think that.
A crater miles across? Statistically, hundreds of thousands to millions of years ago.
Yeah, my statement was unnecessary and I would have done better to leave it out.
Well, that’s reassuring!
I wonder how bright that would be, and how long it would last.