015 - The Moon (visible and near-infrared)

One of the major scientific goals of the Clementine mission is to map the Moon in 11 different wavelengths in the visible and near-infrared parts of the spectrum. The filter colors of the Clementine cameras were carefully chosen to differentiate types of lunar surface material. In our first look at the global color, each Clementine image made by the UV/VIS camera has been reduced to its average value, producing a picture of the Moon at low resolution (about 50 kilometers per pixel). These pictures show the albedo (brightness) and color of the Moon from three aspects: the Earth-centered view (near side) with a 0 degree central longitude, and two far side views with 120 degrees East and 120 degrees West central longitudes. These images have been made by assigning colors to the relative reflectance values obtained through various filters, resulting in a map showing the compositional variation of the Moon.

Major compositional provinces in the highlands are evident. The large dark red-gray region on the far side is the South Pole-Aitken basin, an ancient impact feature that apparently contains rocks of distinct composition. A newly discovered compositional anomaly on the east limb of the Moon (pink area near center of 120 degrees East image) may be related to ancient flows of lava. The color picture shows that very high titanium lavas (deep blue and cyan colors) appear to be largely confined to the Oceanus Procellarum, Mare Imbrium, and Mare Tranquillitatis areas (near side). These views of the Moon in three colors only hint at the scientific richness contained within the Clementine global data, which will be investigated for years to come.