                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2023 January 16
   Earth's Moon is pictured but shown with exaggerated details and colors.
          Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

                                Moon Enhanced
                 Image Credit & Copyright: Darya Kawa Mirza

   Explanation: Our Moon doesn't really look like this. Earth's Moon,
   Luna, doesn't naturally show this rich texture, and its colors are more
   subtle. But this digital creation is based on reality. The featured
   image is a composite of multiple images and enhanced to bring up real
   surface features. The enhancements, for example, show more clearly
   craters that illustrate the tremendous bombardment our Moon has been
   through during its 4.6-billion-year history. The dark areas, called
   maria, have fewer craters and were once seas of molten lava.
   Additionally, the image colors, although based on the moon's real
   composition, are changed and exaggerated. Here, a blue hue indicates a
   region that is iron rich, while orange indicates a slight excess of
   aluminum. Although the Moon has shown the same side to the Earth for
   billions of years, modern technology is allowing humanity to learn much
   more about it -- and how it affects the Earth.

                  Tomorrow's picture: Andromeda, unexpected
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

