Far side moon photos reveal hidden lunar minerals in brilliant color
SMRTR summary
The moon, it turns out, is not just a dusty gray rock. It's a geological gold mine, bursting with hidden color.
When NASA's Artemis II crew made their historic flyby around the far side of the moon in April, commander Reid Wiseman had a very specific photographic mission. Before launch, he'd been tutored by astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy, who had a vision for something beyond the typical gray lunar snapshots.
McCarthy stacks hundreds of raw images together, filters out noise, and then cranks up the color saturation to reveal what the naked eye can't see. Reds emerge as iron oxide. Blues signal titanium-rich basalt.
"I'm trying to bring those out in order to excite people and help them see our moon as more than just a dusty gray rock," McCarthy says, "as the geological gold mine that it is."
The results are breathtaking, and a reminder that sometimes science and art make the most extraordinary partners.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Scientific American.
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