Lunar Near and Far Side Phases

  • Released Tuesday, March 24, 2026
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As the Moon orbits the Earth, sunlight and shadow sweep across its surface in a 29.5-day cycle that waxes from new Moon to full Moon and back again. From Earth, we can watch the Moon’s phases play out across its familiar near side. Because half of the Moon is always illuminated, the far side also goes through phases beyond our line of sight. During a full Moon, the near side is in full sunlight while the far side is in full shadow – and vice versa during a new Moon. The animations below illustrate this concept.

Depending on their launch date, the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission may become the first humans to see regions of the lunar far side, like Mare Orientale, in sunlight.

WANING GIBBOUS TO WAXING CRESCENT

ARTIST’S CONCEPT – Animation of the Moon’s near side in a waning gibbous phase and its far side in the opposite phase (waxing crescent).

WAXING GIBBOUS TO WANING CRESCENT

ARTIST’S CONCEPT – Animation of the Moon’s near side in a waxing gibbous phase and its far side in the opposite phase (waning crescent).

VERTICAL VERSION

ARTIST’S CONCEPT – Vertical animation of the Moon’s near side in a waxing gibbous phase and its far side in the opposite phase (waning crescent).

Credits

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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This page was originally published on Tuesday, March 24, 2026.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 at 10:47 PM EDT.