We are familiar with the full moon but this one is special.The picture shows the fully illuminated far side of the moon which we earthlings never see.Thanks to  the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) which captured this view of an apparently Full Moon crossing in front of a Full Earth on July 16,2015.

DSCOVR is a NOAA earth observation and space weather satellite which was launched by Space X’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle Feb 9,2011.The first ever image of the far side of the moon was taken by lunar exploration(Soviet probe Luna 3) on October 7, 1959.The spacecraft was positioned between earth and the sun and beyond moon’s orbit which made it possible to capture this marvellous shot.

The reason why can’t we the far side is that  its orbital period is exactly same as the rotational period.If it never spins at all we would have been able to see it’s far side.This behaviour is called as Tidal Locking.

But still,we are able to see 59% of the moon’s surface,thanks to Liberation,which is the back and forth motion of the moon because of which an observer can see different halves of moon’s surface at different times.Watch this phenomenon here.

Watch this video and understand Tidal Locking in a  better way.