                        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.

                                2024 July 24
   Earth's Moon is shown with the heights of surface features all greatly
     exaggerated. Also, the colors of the Moon have been exaggerated so
   areas of blue and red are more easily seen. Please see the explanation
                       for more detailed information.

                              Exaggerated Moon
   Credit: Data: NASA, Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter; Image & Processing:
                               Ildar Ibatullin

   Explanation: Our Moon doesn't really have craters this big. Earth's
   Moon, Luna, also doesn't naturally show this spikey texture, and its
   colors are more subtle. But this digital creation is based on reality.
   The featured image is a digital composite of a good Moon image and
   surface height data taken from NASA's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter
   (LOLA) mission -- and then exaggerated for educational understanding.
   The digital enhancements, for example, accentuate lunar highlands and
   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: open space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

