{"id":315429,"date":"2026-04-08T17:33:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=315429"},"modified":"2026-04-08T17:33:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:03:28","slug":"people-think-nasas-artemis-ii-has-found-a-face-on-the-dark-side-of-the-moon-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/08\/people-think-nasas-artemis-ii-has-found-a-face-on-the-dark-side-of-the-moon-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"People think Nasa’s Artemis II has found a face on the dark side of the moon | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The image was taken on the far side of the moon \u2013 are you able to see the face? (Picture: AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Images captured by the Artemis II crew while passing the Orientale Basin on the moon appear to point out a smiling face.<\/p>\n

While conducting their lunar flyby on April 6, the astronauts captured a full view of the Orientale Basin \u2013 a dark crater on the far side of the moon that had never been seen in full before.<\/p>\n

Eagle-eyed followers of the mission were quick to indicate a smiling face spotted in a single crater.<\/p>\n

One replied: \u2018It\u2019s cute like a hippo,\u2019 referencing web mega-star Moo Deng, a pygmy hippo from Thailand.<\/p>\n

One other doodled a smiling face on the crater and said, \u2018That is all I see.\u2019<\/p>\n

Some identified the resemblance to the manga and anime character Doraemon, a robotic cat who time-travels.<\/p>\n

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Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/strong> newsletter or get Breaking News <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Some online opted to make it a straightforward emoji (Picture: X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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One close-up appeared to resemble web hippo Moo Deng (Picture: X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pictures of the \u2018smiley\u2019 crater got here just days after the\u00a0Artemis II\u00a0astronauts became the farthest humans from Earth ever.<\/p>\n

The record-breaking crew selected the poignant moment to propose naming two craters on the dark side of the\u00a0moon\u00a0after their ship, Integrity and commander Reid Weisman\u2019s wife, Carroll, who sadly passed away before the mission.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Hanson said in a tearful communication as they floated 248,655 miles from Earth: \u2018We lost a loved one.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mentioning the never-before-seen crater, he said: \u2018There’s a feature on the near side boundary of the moon, and so at certain times we are going to find a way to see it from Earth.<\/p>\n

\u2018We lost a loved one, her name was Carroll, she was the mother of Katie and Ellie. It\u2019s a shiny spot on the moon. We would really like to call it Carroll.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Integrity and Carroll crater. Loud and clear,\u2019 Houston replied.<\/p>\n

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Astronauts on board are having a blast throughout the mission (Picture: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Stunning recent photos from the mission were released this week (Picture: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The six-hour flyby is the highlight of Nasa\u2019s first return to the moon because the Apollo era.<\/p>\n

Lower than an hour before kicking off the fly-around and intense lunar observations, the 4 astronauts surpassed the space record of 248,655 miles (400,171 km) set by Apollo 13 in April 1970.<\/p>\n

They kept going, hurtling ever farther from Earth. Before it was throughout, Mission Control expected Artemis II to beat the old record by greater than 4,100 miles (6,600 km).<\/p>\n

The astronauts woke as much as the voice of Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, who recorded the message just two months before his death last August. \u2018Welcome to my old neighbourhood,\u2019 said Lovell, who also flew on Apollo 8, humanity\u2019s first lunar visit. <\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a historic day, and I know the way busy you\u2019ll be, but don\u2019t forget to benefit from the view.\u2019<\/p>\n

Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Mystery giant \u2018forbidden planet\u2019 has been found \u2013 and astronomers are baffled<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: White House shares photo of the moon minutes after Trump\u2019s \u2018civilisation\u2019 threat<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: There\u2019s a probability aliens are hitching a ride on the moons of rogue planets<\/span><\/p>\n

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The image was taken on the far side of the moon \u2013 are you able to see the face? (Picture: AFP) Images captured by the Artemis II crew while passing the Orientale Basin on the moon appear to point out a smiling face. While conducting their lunar flyby on April 6, the astronauts captured a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":315430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[47830,5163,3054,648,3446,395,2038,3716,813],"class_list":["post-315429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-artemis","tag-dark","tag-face","tag-moon","tag-nasas","tag-news","tag-people","tag-side","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315432,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315429\/revisions\/315432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}