True Colors of the Moon

True Colors of the Moon

What color is the Moon? If you had to pick a single hue, it would probably be gray. There are light-gray lunar highlands, dark-gray lunar seas, and miles and miles of gray moondust everywhere. Yet the Moon is not monochromatic. Astronomers have long known that the Moon's terrain is actually rich in subtle color. Consider this image of the "Snow Moon" taken last night by Maximilian Teodorescu of Comana Woods, Romania:

Teodorescu boosted the natural colors of the Moon using Photoshop. "This is how the Moon would look like if we could have an saturation-enhancement filter integrated in our eyes," he says.
The colors reveal the Moon's mineral composition. Blue denotes areas rich in titanium, while orange is titanium poor. Pink traces iron-poor, aluminum-rich feldspars found in the lunar highlands. A challenge to astrophotographers: Capture the colors of tonight's Moon. It's not as gray as you think.

From SpaceWeather.com