“The moon has a 'dark side' that never sees sunlight.”

It's a common misconception that our Moon has a perpetually 'dark side' that never receives sunlight. This idea likely stems from the fact that we on Earth always see the same face of the Moon. For centuries, before space probes could orbit our celestial neighbor, the side of the Moon facing away from Earth remained a mystery, leading to the understandable assumption that it was perpetually shrouded in darkness.

The truth is, the Moon does not have a permanently dark side. All sides of the Moon experience sunlight, just like Earth does. The phenomenon that leads to the misconception is called tidal locking. The Moon rotates on its axis at almost the exact same rate it orbits Earth, meaning the same hemisphere is always facing us. This 'near side' and the 'far side' both go through a full cycle of day and night, each lasting about two Earth weeks.

People commonly believe this myth because the term 'dark side' is evocative and has been popularized in culture, often implying something hidden or mysterious. Coupled with the undeniable observation that we only ever see one face of the Moon, it's easy to conclude that the unseen side must also be the unlit side. However, the 'dark side' is more accurately referred to as the 'far side,' and it receives just as much sunlight over the course of a lunar cycle as the near side we are familiar with.