Once in a blue moon may occur more often than we thought.
New images show that our moon is much more colorful than just shades of gray. Instead, both blue and red hues were observed on the moon rocks.
The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer – Juice for short – took colorful photos of the lunar surface before returning to Earth on Tuesday.
They were recently captured by the probe’s Janus camera during a historic flyby of Earth and the Moon before it set course for Venus in 2025 and Jupiter in 2031.
“The image shows some signs of real color differences in the large-scale structures of the lunar surface,” the agency said.
Recently released photos show that the moon’s mare – flat surface areas far from either pole – emit a more bluish color.
A spokesperson for the European Space Agency told the Telegraph that “darker regions” in Mare Fecunditatis – adjacent to the Apollo 11 landing site known as the Sea of Tranquility – “are associated with terrain whose surface has been reshaped by volcanic activity.”
The volcanic traces – also called basaltic compounds – were discovered by the Apollo 15 astronauts nearly half a century ago and aroused the interest of a Janus operator who also saw some red spots there.
“There are slightly different shades of lunar basalt (bluish) and lava flows (reddish), and some lunar samples exhibit many colors,” Andrew Coates, physics professor and co-investigator on the camera, told the outlet.
While the ESA described the differences as “darker grey, lighter grey and even lighter grey,” Coates said it “actually looks like there are some obvious, real colour differences.”
He noted that the basalt areas reflect less “compared to the other brighter areas” on the moon.
These more prominent landmasses are called elevated plateaus – a rugged landing site used by Apollo 16.
“Subtle color differences may occur due to minor differences in composition,” he said, adding that sunlight and camera calibration may play a role in the new images.
“It’s worth noting that the Janus cameras should provide better images and better calibration,” Coates said.
“So we’ll probably have to wait until September to know how real this is – but it’s still interesting to see.”
