Moon Minerals

The bright colors in this moon dirt represent the volume and scattering of surface material as well as the chemical composition of matter underneath the surface. Imaged by a high-performance optical instrument on KAYUGA called the multiband imager, this photo was taken approximately 100 kilometers above the moon's surface.

The multiband imager uses two telescopes to measure mineral distribution by detecting nine different wavelengths ranging from visible to near-infrared. The tri-colored image shown above was created by applying red, green, and blue to three of the nine bands recorded.

Image courtesy of JAXA/SELENE