13.8.06

I Had No Idea The Moon Was So Colorful















The Colorful Moon

Credit: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA

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.

Thanks Astronomy Picture of the Day

1 comment:

Colby said...

this freakish moon will crash on earth and destroy us all!

seinfeld gems about the moon:
We never should have landed a man on the moon. It's a mistake. Now everything is compared to that one accomplishment. I can't believe they could land a man on the moon . . . and taste my coffee! I think we all would have been a lot happier if they hadn't landed a man on the moon. Then we'd go, They can't make a prescription bottle top that's easy to open? I'm not surprised they couldn't land a man on the moon. Things make perfect sense to me now. Neil Armstrong should have said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for every, complaining, sob on the face of the earth. "

What the hell were they doing with a car on the goddamn Moon?
You’re on the Moon already!
Isn’t that far enough?

There is no more male idea in the history of the universe than:
“why don’t we fly up to the Moon and drive around?”
That is the essence of male thinking right there.