The Colorful Moon
Explanation:
Do you recognize the
Earth's Moon when you
see it?
The crazy, patchwork appearance of
this false color image makes this nearly full view of
our Moon's familiar
nearside look very strange.
The image was taken in 1992 by the Galileo spacecraft enroute to Jupiter.
The Sea of Tranquillity
(
Mare Tranquillitatis) is the blue area at right,
the Ocean of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum) is the extensive
blue and orange area on the left, and white lines radiate
from the crater Tycho at bottom center.
Three filters were used to make three separate exposures, combined
in an exaggerated color scheme to emphasize
composition differences
- blue hues reveal titanium rich areas while orange and purple colors
show regions relatively poor in titanium and iron.
NASA soon plans to conduct an extensive
remote exploration
of the lunar surface, including
a search for water ice near the lunar South Pole,
with
the Lunar Prospector spacecraft.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
