The Colorful Moon

Do you recognize the Earth's Moon when you see it? The crazy, patchwork appearance
of the false-color image makes this almost full view of the Moon's familiar near side
look very strange. The Sea of Tranquillity (Mare Tranquillitatis) is the bright 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. Recorded
in 1992 by the Galileo spacecraft enroute to Jupiter, the picture is a mosaic of 15 images
taken through three color filters. The image data was 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.
Multicolor images exploring the Moon's global surface composition were made in
1994 by the Clementine spacecraft.