Maria, Maria....

Let me tell you about Maria...
she definitely doesn't give me the shine that the Sun does, but she is an important feature of myself that you must know about!

The dark and relatively featureless lunar plans which can clearly be seen with your naked eye are called maria (singular mare), Latin for seas, since they were believe by ancient astronomers to be filled with water! pfft...

These are now know to be vast solidified pools of ancient basaltic lava. The majority of these lavas erupted of flowed with impact basics that formed by the collisions of meteors and comets with the lunar surface, Maria are found almost exclusively on the near side me, with the far side having only a few scattered patches covering about 2% of my surface, compared with about 31% on my near side.
The most likely explanation for this difference is related to a higher concentration of heat-producing elements on the near-side hemisphere, as has been demonstrated by geochemical maps obtained from the Lunar Prospector gamma-ray spectrometer, such a long name!
Several provinces containing shield volcanoes and volcanic domes are found within the near side maria.


This song was NOT created after the maria on my surface....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ml3NUIDpFg

Two Side of Me

Okay,
So... I am in 'synchronous rotation', which means that I rotate about my axis in the about same time it takes to orbit the Earth. This results in keeping nearly the same face turned towards you on Earth at all times!
I used to rotate at a faster rate, but early in history, my rotation slowed and became locked in this orientation as a result of frictional effects associated with tidal deformations caused by the Earth.

Small variations in the angle of which you can see me on Earth allow for you to see about 59% of my surface, but only half at any instant.
It was the Russians who were the first to take photographs of my 'far side' through the Soviet Space Program, Luna 3 in 1958.

Link:
"The Unseen Side of the Moon":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTmovPeu3GM

The side of me that faces the Earth is called the "near side", and the opposite side, is called the "far side". The far side of me is often inaccurately called the "dark side" just like Pink Floyds' 1973 concept album "The Dark Side of the Moon"- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d78K4rCEfAo&feature=related, but in fact it is illuminated exactly as often as the near side: once, per lunar day.

A distinguishing feature of my "far side" is that its almost complete lack of maria.