NASA releases video of the far side of the Moon

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- NASA has released a video showing what it looks like on the side of the moon humans can't see from Earth.

Often referred to as the "dark" side of the moon, the far side of the moon is actually lit by the sun just as often as the closer side.

The rendering of the moon was made using hundreds of terabytes of data collected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

As the video states, when the moon is nearly full on the other side, it will be a waning crescent on the side viewable from Earth. The far side also has fewer maria -- the large, flat areas seen from Earth as dark spots -- than the near side.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been mapping the moon since 2009.