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Anyone like our Moon?


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The 174-megapixel image, which shows the moon's colors, craters and glowing aura in stunning detail, was first revealed on Reddit on Saturday. 

... 

"The color in this image is real, but presented with increased saturation so it is easily visible to our eyes," he wrote. "The reddish tones demonstrate areas rich in iron and feldspar, while the bluish areas are spots where the regolith is rich in titanium. Oxidization from influence from Earth's atmosphere makes the colors appear like they do."

McCarthy told NPR that the project is "assembled like a mosaic." 

(all above are quoted from the article) 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/moon-photo-two-astrophotographers-captured-most-ridiculously-detailed-picture/

 

Here's the Reddit link:

 

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It's completely unique in our solar system (so large relative to the planet it orbits). As far as we know, life is also completely unique to Earth in our solar system. Possibly those are coincidental, but what if they are not?

Edited by mikegarrison
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3 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

It's completely unique in our solar system (so large relative to the planet it orbits). As far as we know, life is also completely unique to Earth in our solar system. Possibly those are coincidental, but what if they are not?

I think it likely that tidal forces on the planet / moon found in the habitable zone are critical.  Similarly, a healthy magnetosphere - which could be related.

The Moon may play a major role in maintaining Earth's magnetic field -- ScienceDaily

The 'atmosphere' slice is a lot more difficult: the two leading theories are vulcanism / life (early atmosphere from outgassing via vulcanism, free oxygen via life) and accretion (bombardment)... but it's probably a combination of the two.  There's theories (no 'proof') that tidal forces contribute to mantle elasticity which give rise to vulcanism via plate tectonics and that early single-cell organisms (esp. those that photosynthesize) gave off oxygen as a 'waste' product... but that also comet ices could have contributed to free water and thus oxygen in the atmosphere as well.

 

Lots and lots of lucky coincidences.

 

(But: you roll the dice often enough...)

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23 hours ago, tater said:

The reddit doesn't say so, but it looks like that the image is an anaglyph to me.

(zoomed out looks cool, muddy zoomed in)

Many photographs were stacked to get the final image, and IMO the stacking alignment looks a little bit incorrect.

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1 hour ago, DeadJohn said:

Many photographs were stacked to get the final image, and IMO the stacking alignment looks a little bit incorrect.

That would be consistent with it looking like an anaglyph even if it's not. The combination of that and the color probably heightens the effect.

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3 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

Thank, I was thinking of this should be another tread.  

Now +30 years ago then I was in the army I found the light the full moon provides then the the land is filled with snow is pretty impressive. 

The moon has also had serious military significance, not because of military moon bases but because of tides and lighting. 
It as an serious factor during the D-day you wanted high tides to get over the traps but no moonlight until you was about to land and most of the battleships and cruisers active at the time started their bombardment. 

Edited by magnemoe
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26 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Thank, I was thinking of this should be another tread.  

Now +30 years ago then I was in the army I found the light the full moon provides then the the land is filled with snow is pretty impressive. 

The moon has also had serious military significance, not because of military moon bases but because of tides and lighting. 
It as an serious factor during the D-day you wanted high tides to get over the traps but no moonlight until you was about to land and most of the battleships and cruisers active at the time started their bombardment. 

Heh, another army story about the moon. Not from my year of service, but apparently a couple years before:

During an exercise, all the platoons in our company where tasked to secure the perimeter around the battalion HQ. Each platoon had its own little guard post, responsible for part of the perimeter. Each guard post was tasked to monitor the field of view between there and there, usually marked with different objects visible from the post. Stones, trees, ditches, etc. This would create overlapping fields of view and zones of responsibility around the entire HQ.

... if not for the fact that one of the guard posts was told to use the moon as its right-side limit. As the night went on and the moon moved across the sky, their field of view (and zone of responsibility) grew and grew, and the hapless soldiers eventually noticed movement in their zone. Cue the alarm being raised and a huge ruckus erupting. There was a lot of shouting and firing for a while until it was realized that the sleep-deprived soldiers had attacked their neighbouring guard post.

The battalion was docked quite a few points in that exercise.

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