PHOTO: The Moon, Like You've Never Seen It Before

NASA recently released a colorized photograph of the moon, assembled from 18 images taken through a green filter by the Galileo spacecraft. The solar landscape can be viewed below in unprecedented detail and richness of color. Photo below. See the full size image from NASA

NASA Picture of Moon

Thats AMAZING star and flag, i fear this will fall by the wayside with all the Blue spiral talk going on.
I think its remarkable great find!!

[edit on 9-12-2009 by Hack28]

reply to post by Hack28


Thanks, but yeah, that spiral is getting a lot of play, but I can see why....

If you think that is spectacular, then check this one out.

www.rc-astro.com...

BTW, S&F

Those are both really great photos of the moon! Thanks for posting them.

whew the second one takes my breath away
thats my new background!

Does "colorized" mean it was a black and white photo with color added, or is it a color photo?

I ask because......if we had no preconceived notions of the moon, it would look like deeper shades of blue toward the middle of the cauldrins indicating deeper water, and green tinges near the shore lines and low lying valley areas, and brighter whites or reflections from the highest points?

So, if I didn't already know what I know about the moon( ) I could draw a lot of conclusions from a picture like that, and it makes me wonder.....did NASA put the color in that manner for some reason? Or....is that actually how it looks and the moon is not so barren as we have been led to believe?

reply to post by getreadyalready

About the OP's photo...

This color mosaic was assembled from 18 images taken by Galileo's imaging system through a green filter. On the upperleft is the dark, lava-filled Mare Imbrium, Mare Serenitatis (middle left), Mare Tranquillitatis (lower left), and Mare Crisium, the dark circular feature toward the bottom of the mosaic. Also visible in this view are the dark lava plains of the Marginis and Smythii Basins at the lower right. The Humboldtianum Basin, a 400-mile impact structure partly filled with dark volcanic deposits, is seen at the center of the image.

About the photo I linked above...

Is the moon really this colorful? In a way, yes. The lunar surface actually does have quite a bit of color, although in reality it is very subtle. In this photograph, the color saturation has been enhanced to bring out the differences in the colors of the various areas of the surface. The hues are correct, just much more vivid than we usually see them.

Aside from making an interesting aesthetic presentation, the colors also give clues as to the mineralogy of the moon's surface. Also, at the sites of many impact craters we can see that deeper material exposed (and in some cases scattered) by the impact is of a different composition than the material on the surface.

reply to post by Aggie Man


Aggie Man thats an amazing picture

They've kept it in secret since 1992? Why?

Edit: year (memory allocation problem )

[edit on 9-12-2009 by DangerDeath]

reply to post by DangerDeath


Keep what a secret?

Originally posted by RuneSpider
reply to post by DangerDeath

 

Keep what a secret?

The photo on NASA site is from 1992.

During its mission, the Galileo spacecraft returned a number of images of Earth's only natural satellite. Galileo surveyed the moon on Dec. 7, 1992,

reply to post by DangerDeath


I don't think so much they kept it a secret, this is a new compilation.

Nasa has had the Galileo photos on the web for a bit.
solarsystem.nasa.gov...
www2.jpl.nasa.gov...

The Wikipedia page for the mision also has a number of links containing the mission's photo galleries.

According tot he OP's links, these have been redone with a green filter to bring out the color a bit stronger.

reply to post by RuneSpider


This one also looks retouched. Or not? Moon in color, somehow strange...

photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...

reply to post by DangerDeath


Color pictures usually are retouched, most of the colorful pictures from space are false color.
NASA usually utilizes black and white cameras due to bandwidth constraints, and uses a coloring system to generate the true color or false color enhancements.

NASA will generate false colors either for media, or to highlight certain features.

Yes its a nice picture....but why are all the pictures so far away, why cant we see close up ? With all the tech that we have we should be able to see within a few meters above the surface by now.

Originally posted by Reevster
Yes its a nice picture....but why are all the pictures so far away, why cant we see close up ? With all the tech that we have we should be able to see within a few meters above the surface by now.

You ask what is the ,ost important question I could ever think of. Why is it when you attempt to do a close up, it breaks up. What is it they wish to hide. I wish there was someone willing to let us see close ups. They do this with Mars as well.

reply to post by RuneSpider


OK, thanks. It is understandable that colors are different in different environments, no atmospheric filter, etc.

I wonder, are there any explanations from NASA about the unusual light around Aristarchus crater?

reply to post by Reevster


Most missions are not meant for the moon, this picture from the Galileo probe was made on it's fly by.
Even the Hubble can't take a close detail picture of the moon, as it's too close, and too small for it's camera.

The best we have are missions like LCross that took photos on it's approach, some of which show the landing spot of the Apollo mission, which show up as just noticable dots.

Great picture.

I noticed this crater near the top that kind of looks like a face, what do you think?