For decades, one part of the Moon has carried more mystery than almost anywhere else in the Solar System.
The far side.
It cannot normally be seen directly from Earth. Early photographs revealed a landscape surprisingly different from the familiar face above us, while later UFO stories transformed that hidden hemisphere into the supposed location of secret bases, enormous structures and unidentified spacecraft.
The idea remains remarkably persistent.
But in 2026, humans finally returned to the Moon's vicinity.
During NASA's Artemis II mission, astronauts flew around the lunar far side and photographed regions that humans had not directly observed in decades. The images revealed an extraordinary landscape of craters, basins and ancient geological structures — but no confirmed alien installations. NASA
So what is actually on the far side of the Moon, and why has it become so closely associated with UFOs?

Why Can't We See the Far Side of the Moon?

The answer has nothing to do with secrecy.
The Moon is tidally locked to Earth.
It rotates once on its axis in approximately the same amount of time that it takes to orbit Earth. As a result, roughly the same hemisphere continuously faces our planet.
The opposite hemisphere is therefore called the far side.
It is sometimes incorrectly called the “dark side of the Moon”, but the far side is not permanently dark. It receives sunlight just as the near side does. NASA Science
In fact, when we see a thin crescent Moon from Earth, much of the far side is illuminated.
What makes the far side unusual is simply our viewing position.
We cannot normally see it from the ground.

When Did Humans First See the Far Side?

For most of human history, nobody knew what it looked like.
That changed in 1959.
The Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft travelled around the Moon and transmitted the first photographs of the far side back to Earth.
The images were crude by modern standards, but they revealed something unexpected.
The far side looked noticeably different from the familiar near side.
The dark volcanic plains known as maria, which dominate much of the Earth-facing hemisphere, were far less common.
Instead, the far side was covered with densely packed impact craters and rugged highlands. NASA Science
That difference was scientifically fascinating.
It also provided ideal material for speculation.

Why Did UFO Theories Become Attached to the Far Side?

The basic ingredients were almost perfect.
There was a place close to Earth that humans could not see directly.
Early photographs were blurry.
Space exploration was intertwined with Cold War secrecy.
And the landscape itself looked completely alien.
From there, stories began to grow.
Some claimed unusual structures appeared in lunar photographs.
Others suggested astronauts had observed spacecraft.
More elaborate theories proposed that extraterrestrial visitors deliberately built bases on the far side because they would remain invisible from Earth.
The argument sounds intriguing until one major problem appears:
The far side is hidden from people standing on Earth, not from spacecraft.

Have We Photographed the Entire Far Side?

Yes, extensively.
Numerous spacecraft have mapped and photographed it.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has provided detailed imagery of the lunar surface, while other international missions have studied its terrain, mineralogy and geology.
Modern lunar maps are dramatically more detailed than the photographs available when many early Moon conspiracy theories originated.
That does not mean every rock or cave has been individually examined.
The Moon is enormous.
But the idea that the far side remains an entirely unseen hemisphere is decades out of date.

What Did Artemis II See?

This is where the subject became especially relevant again in 2026.
NASA's Artemis II crew flew around the Moon on 6 April during a seven-hour lunar flyby.
Astronauts photographed the far side directly from Orion.
NASA subsequently released images showing regions including Vavilov Crater, Hertzsprung Basin and Orientale Basin, along with remarkable views of Earth appearing above or disappearing behind the lunar horizon. NASA
The photographs are important for more than their visual impact.
NASA specifically trained the Artemis II crew to make scientific observations of lunar geology during the flight, including terrain that could be viewed directly by humans from cislunar space. NASA Technical Reports
Once again, the far side proved fascinating.
But fascinating does not mean artificial.

Did Artemis II Photograph UFOs or Alien Structures?

NASA has not reported discovering an extraterrestrial spacecraft or artificial alien structure during the Artemis II lunar flyby.
That distinction matters.
Unusual shadows, isolated bright points and geometric-looking terrain can appear extremely striking in lunar photographs.
But the Moon is covered with enormous craters, fractured terrain, mountains and overlapping impact structures.
Sunlight also behaves visually differently there.
With virtually no atmosphere to scatter light, illuminated terrain can sit immediately beside extremely dark shadows.
Low-angle sunlight exaggerates ridges and crater walls even further.
NASA deliberately used such lighting conditions during Artemis II because long shadows reveal geological relief and surface detail. NASA
A strange-looking shape in a photograph therefore needs much more investigation before it can reasonably be described as artificial.

What About UFOs Photographed During the Apollo Missions?

This is where the far-side story connects with an even more interesting historical question.
Apollo astronauts and mission photography recorded objects and lights that have subsequently attracted UAP attention.
One particularly interesting example comes from Apollo 17, where three bright features visible in lunar photography have become the subject of renewed analysis.
Our investigation of the Apollo 17 UFO photographs examines the original imagery and explains why an unidentified photographic feature does not establish an extraterrestrial origin.
The existence of unresolved photographic features is worth investigating.
It does not establish the existence of a lunar base.

Could an Alien Base Actually Hide on the Moon?

This requires separating possibility from evidence.
The Moon has a surface area of roughly 38 million square kilometres.
Large regions remain physically unexplored by humans.
There are also lava tubes, permanently shadowed regions and complex geological environments that spacecraft continue to study. Research into Moon caves and lunar lava tubes shows why underground lunar environments are scientifically interesting, although their existence provides no evidence of extraterrestrial installations.
So could a sufficiently small object exist somewhere without having been recognised?
In the abstract, it is difficult to prove that absolutely nothing artificial exists anywhere on such a vast world.
But that is not the same as having evidence that something does.
A claim as significant as an extraterrestrial installation would require identifiable structures, repeated high-resolution observations, unusual materials or other independent evidence.
No verified evidence currently demonstrates that such a base exists.

Why Do Some Lunar Features Look Artificial?

Humans are exceptionally good at finding familiar patterns.
We see faces in clouds.
We recognise animals in rock formations.
We see buildings in unusual shadows.
This tendency is known as pareidolia.
Lunar terrain provides particularly favourable conditions for it.
Craters overlap.
Rock formations create straight-looking edges.
Long shadows hide surrounding terrain.
Image compression removes detail.
And enhancement software can exaggerate shapes that were barely present in the original photograph.
A blurry rectangular feature can therefore begin as geology and end up online labelled as a “Moon building”.
The more an image is enlarged, sharpened and processed, the easier it becomes to forget how little information existed in the original pixels.

Are There Really Strange Structures on the Moon?

The Moon contains unusual geological formations, including enormous impact basins, volcanic features and collapsed lava tubes. Some appear geometric in photographs, particularly when viewed under low-angle sunlight.
However, an unusual shape is not evidence of artificial construction. Establishing that a structure was manufactured would require observations and material evidence that cannot be explained by known geological processes.

Could Underground Lunar Bases Be Harder to Detect?

This is one of the stronger versions of the alien-base hypothesis.
Instead of imagining giant buildings sitting openly on the surface, the theory proposes that a technologically advanced civilisation could operate underground.
Lunar lava tubes make the idea sound less absurd than a giant exposed city.
Scientists genuinely study lunar caves and lava tubes because they could potentially protect future human explorers from radiation, extreme temperature changes and micrometeorites.
But the existence of natural underground cavities does not demonstrate that someone occupies them.
A suitable hiding place is not evidence of something hiding there.

Why Would the Far Side Be Attractive to a Technological Civilisation?

There is an interesting scientific answer to this hypothetical question.
The Moon's far side is naturally shielded from much of Earth's radio noise.
That makes it potentially valuable for extremely sensitive radio astronomy.
Scientists have therefore considered the far side as an exceptional environment for studying low-frequency radio signals from the universe.
If humans recognise that advantage, it is possible to imagine why another technological civilisation might also value such a location.
But again, this is reasoning about what could be useful.
It is not evidence that somebody has already built anything there.

Could We Eventually Search for Artificial Objects?

Yes.
And this is where the subject becomes scientifically interesting without requiring conspiracy theories.
Researchers searching for extraterrestrial intelligence usually concentrate on distant stars and radio signals.
But another possibility is searching our own Solar System for technological artefacts.
If another civilisation had visited the Solar System thousands or millions of years ago, objects left on a geologically quiet body such as the Moon could theoretically survive far longer than comparable evidence on Earth.
Earth constantly destroys its own geological record through weather, oceans, erosion and plate tectonics.
The Moon changes much more slowly.
Searching high-resolution lunar imagery for genuinely anomalous objects could therefore be an interesting scientific exercise — provided researchers use rigorous criteria rather than simply identifying strange-looking pixels.

What Will Scientists Study on the Far Side Next?

Exploration is far from finished.
NASA's Farside Seismic Suite is planned for delivery to the Schrödinger basin on the lunar far side in 2027.
It will carry highly sensitive seismometers designed to measure far-side moonquakes and meteor impacts, potentially returning the first NASA seismic measurements from the Moon since the Apollo era. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
That kind of investigation may tell us considerably more about the Moon's interior.
Future missions will continue mapping its geology, measuring its environment and examining locations humans have never visited.
The more detailed those observations become, the smaller the space available for unsupported claims.
But new observations may also reveal genuine surprises.
That is how exploration works.

Does the Far Side Still Have Mysteries?

Absolutely.
Scientists still have major questions about why the near and far sides evolved so differently.
The structure of the lunar interior remains an active field of research.
The history of lunar volcanism continues to be refined.
Scientists are also investigating resources, water ice, subsurface structures and the Moon's record of ancient Solar System impacts.
Mystery does not disappear simply because alien bases have not been found. The same distinction is central to the wider question of whether UFOs are real: unexplained cases can exist without proving that extraterrestrial spacecraft are responsible.
The real Moon is already strange enough.

What Would Convincing Evidence of an Alien Base Look Like?

A convincing discovery would require more than an ambiguous photograph. Researchers would need repeatable observations, independent measurements and evidence that clearly distinguishes artificial construction from natural geology.
High-resolution imagery, radar measurements and eventually direct examination could help evaluate a suspected site. Until such evidence exists, claims about hidden extraterrestrial installations remain speculative.
For a broader examination of these claims, see our article on the alien base on the Moon theory.

So What Is Really on the Far Side of the Moon?

A world.
A heavily cratered, geologically fascinating landscape that remained invisible to human eyes for most of our history.
It contains enormous basins, ancient highlands, unusual geology and environments scientists are only beginning to examine directly.
It is also one of the best examples of how genuine scientific mystery can become mixed with UFO mythology.
The far side was once truly unseen.
Today it is extensively photographed.
Humans have now travelled around it again during Artemis II.
More robotic instruments are coming.
And so far, none of those observations has produced verified evidence of an alien base.
That does not make the far side less interesting.
It makes the real question better.
Instead of asking what might be hidden there, we can increasingly ask what the evidence actually shows.
And as humanity returns to the Moon, that evidence is becoming better than it has ever been.

Sources and Further Reading

NASA Science — The Moon From the Other Side
NASA Science — First Photo of the Lunar Far Side
NASA Scientific Visualization Studio — The Moon's Far Side
NASA — Traveling to the Dark Side
NASA Science — Platform to Study the Solar System