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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Exaggerated Moon
NASA ^ | 24 Jul, 2024 | Credit: Data: NASA, Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter; Image & Processing: Ildar Ibatullin

Posted on 07/24/2024 12:45:24 PM PDT by MtnClimber

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.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa
To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 07/24/2024 12:45:24 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 07/24/2024 12:46:00 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; Agatsu77; America_Right; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔


3 posted on 07/24/2024 12:46:53 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber

So, how is posting fake photos supposed to help when many say all of these photos are fake?


4 posted on 07/24/2024 12:48:26 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber

Excellent use of graphic relief and false color to illustrate non-visual data.


5 posted on 07/24/2024 12:48:50 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: MtnClimber

NASA, GET A CLUE.


6 posted on 07/24/2024 12:49:17 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber
The mineral composition data is derived from spectral imaging in the infrared.

Please discuss possible ways to visually represent it.

IMO, calling it "fake" does a great disservice to the people who collect and analyze data of this nature.

7 posted on 07/24/2024 12:53:04 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: NorthMountain

I gotta agree. I’ve never seen the Moon like that before.


8 posted on 07/24/2024 12:54:23 PM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: telescope115

the exaggerated relief beautifully illustrates the difference between the maria and the highlands ... the different iron-rich and aluminum-rich areas suggest different events forming them, something not obvious from simple visible-light imaging.


9 posted on 07/24/2024 12:57:27 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: MtnClimber

It looks like a moldy jawbreaker.


10 posted on 07/24/2024 1:06:42 PM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: NorthMountain

I get pounded when photos are manipulated. I post and take the incoming. I understand what NASA was trying to show. I am trying to show that I know it was processed so the haters should “maybe” hold off on calling me names. I don’t have much hope that the haters and flat earthers will have mercy on my post. I can take the arrows so I posted this. I have big dogs so bring it on :).


11 posted on 07/24/2024 1:08:50 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber

CP ...

Well ... if the flerfs and other braying jackasses show up, I’ll rip ‘em.


12 posted on 07/24/2024 1:16:25 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: NorthMountain

It’s genius. It certainly makes it easy for me to see the results of those geologic processes.


13 posted on 07/24/2024 4:50:25 PM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: MtnClimber

I think it’s just great. You just keep doing what you’re doing, and thanks for doing it!


14 posted on 07/24/2024 4:52:30 PM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: telescope115

Data visualization is an art that makes science comprehensible. Hats off to people who do it well.


15 posted on 07/24/2024 5:01:07 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: MtnClimber

All celestial bodies are really really smooth.

If you compressed the Earth to the size of a basketball Mt. Everest would fit between a fingerprint ridge/line.

If you compressed the Earth to the size of a bowling ball you could not polish the bowling ball to the smoothness of our planet.


16 posted on 07/24/2024 5:01:18 PM PDT by 1FreeAmerican
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