Stunning NASA Image Show Moon 3M miles from Earth Enroute to Asteroid Bennu

did it capture the image in color? just curious

So if the theory holds true.. that the moon was 'created' due to a collision of some sort all that time ago.. and being that far away.. said object that collided w/ Earth must have been moving at a good click for it to settle in its current spot...

Just a layman thinking out loud mind you...

originally posted by: odzeandennz
did it capture the image in color? just curious

It captured the image at three different wavelengths, which were then combined into one colour image.

originally posted by: UberL33t
So if the theory holds true.. that the moon was 'created' due to a collision of some sort all that time ago.. and being that far away.. said object that collided w/ Earth must have been moving at a good click for it to settle in its current spot...

Just a layman thinking out loud mind you...

The Moon formed much closer to Earth than where it is now. The Moon is very slowly moving away from Earth, due to tidal interaction.

originally posted by: odzeandennz
did it capture the image in color? just curious

Fron the Article:

Three images (different color wavelengths) were combined and color-corrected to make the composite...

Which is a common way for color images to be processed. The Mars MER rover (Spirit and Opportunity) also took separate images of different wavelengths, and those images were combined them to make a close-to-true-color image. However, the light gathering sensors of those cameras are "color blind" and can only detect shades of grey of different intensities, so a process is involved in deducing the color.

The three separate greyscale images as seen through different wavelength filers were them sent back to Earth where they were combined, and a computer then compares the relative intensities of the different greys as seen in each wavelength, then deduces what color the light actually was.

That's the way the color pictures from those rover were produced, and That sounds like what was done here.


By the way, even your mobile phone or consumer digital camera's light sensors are also color blind and use a similar (but slightly different) process for creating color pictures from greyscale images. However, instead of taking three separate pictures through three separate wavelengths and combining them, they use what is called a bayer filter, which gives them one image as seen through that single bayer filter -- which is a combined RGB (red-green-blue) filter. Even though they use this combine filter, the light sensor can still only "see" different intestines of shades of grey.

The computer in your camera then deduces what color it thinks it is seeing by reading the different intensities of grey light that the camera's CCD detects.

The Curiosity Rover on Mars also uses a bayer filter rather that the "combining three separate greyscale images as seen through three separate filters" method.

Ok, from looking at that picture can anyone explain how the moon can look so massive in the sky sometimes ? Oh, and 'perspective' just doesn't cut it i'm afraid !

a reply to: sayzaar

Pretty much does though.

originally posted by: sayzaar
Ok, from looking at that picture can anyone explain how the moon can look so massive in the sky sometimes ? Oh, and 'perspective' just doesn't cut it i'm afraid !

The next time the Moon looks huge as it rises or sets near the horizon, grab a ruler and measure the diameter of the Moon while holing that ruler at arm's length in front of you. Then measure it again later that same night (using the same method) when it looks smaller while it's overhead.

You will find the the measured size of the moon when it lokks smaller to you will be the same when you measured it looking big.

So in that case, it would be a case of perspective/optical illusion/relative size illsion, or whatever you want to call it, it is just an illusion (known as the Moon Illusion)

originally posted by: sayzaar
Ok, from looking at that picture can anyone explain how the moon can look so massive in the sky sometimes ? Oh, and 'perspective' just doesn't cut it i'm afraid !

The human eyesight has this great ability to focus on distant objects and kinda "tunnel vision" them to see them in good detail. That's what's happening when you look at the Moon. It only takes up half a degree of your vision (with 180 degrees going from horizon to horizon).

Try to take a picture of the Moon with your phone, and you'll get a small but very bright blob. For proper imaging, it requires a fairly long focal length and short exposure.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
The next time the Moon looks huge as it rises or sets near the horizon, grab a ruler and measure the diameter of the Moon while holing that ruler at arm's length in front of you. Then measure it again later that same night (using the same method) when it looks smaller while it's overhead.

You will find the the measured size of the moon when it looks smaller to you will be the same when you measured it looking big.

Oddly enough, the angular size of the Moon actually ~1.7% larger when it's straight overhead compared to when it is rising or setting. That is because it is one Earth radius (~4,000 miles) closer to you when it is at the zenith than when it is near the horizon.


[/nitpick]

originally posted by: Saint Exupery
originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

[/nitpick]

No Problem!

And, by the way, this below image is not a nitpick back to you (because you did label your drawing "Not To Scale"), but here is a generally "To Scale" drawing of the Earth Moon system. It is surprising to some people (although I know you know) just how far the Moon is from Earth when viewed to scale: