Aristarchus Crater in False Color

This colour composite focuses on the 42-kilometer-diameter Aristarchus impact crater, and employs ultraviolet- to visible-color-ratio information to accentuate differences that are potentially diagnostic of ilmenite- (i.e, titanium oxide) bearing materials as well as pyroclastic glasses. The symphony of colour within the Aristarchus crater clearly shows a diversity of materials - anorthosite, basalt, and olivine. The images were acquired Aug. 21, 2005. The processing was accomplished by the Hubble Space Telescope Lunar Exploration Team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Northwestern University, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. False-color images were constructed using the red channel as 502/250 nanometers; the green as 502 nanometers; and the blue as 250/658 nanometers. North is at the top in the image.