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Lunar Surface in Color

flat projection map of full lunar surface

Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

Published: October 9, 2017

A color composite mosaic showing most of the Moon's surface, based on images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, photometrically normalized. Note that small "holes" in the mosaic are due to shadows or satauration in the original observations. Learn more and download an even larger version.

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Lunar Orbiter 4 image of the Moon centered on the Mare Orientale Basin. The outermost circle of the "bull's eye" is the Cordillera Mountain scarp, almost 900 kilometers in diameter.

Image of moon with large basin in center

Lunar Orbiter 4 Image of the Moon

First full-frame image of the Moon taken by the Ranger 8 camera A from a distance of 2,573 km.

First Picture of the Moon Taken by Ranger 8

A view of the severely damaged Apollo 13 Service Module.

spacecraft with visible damage to its structure

Damage Report

A close-up view of two components of the Apollo lunar surface experiments package (ALSEP) which the Apollo 14 astronauts deployed on the Moon during their first extravehicular activity (EVA).

Lunar surface experiments package deployed on moon

Apollo 14 Mission Image - View of the ALSEP Station

The Moon looks a little different every night—this chart shows why.

Phases of the Moon

Astronaut Richard F. Gordon Jr., Apollo 12 command module pilot, suits up in the Kennedy Space Center's Manned Spacecraft Operations Building during the Apollo 12 prelaunch countdown.

Astronaut Richard F. Gordon Suits Up During Apollo 12 Prelaunch Countdown

Gerald D. Griffin, foreground, stands near his console in the Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) during Apollo 15's third extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface.

Apollo 15 flight director standing in Mission Control Center

View of Activity in Mission Control Center During Apollo 15 EVA

The approximately 250,000-mile journey from Earth to the moon took Apollo astronauts about three days.

Journey to the Moon

This montage depicts the flight crew patches for the manned Apollo 7 thru Apollo 17 missions.

Saturn Apollo Program

The Moon's Montes Carpatus region, seen here by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, contains numerous examples of volcanic materials.

Montes Carpatus

Apollo 8 Launch

Saturn V rocket launches with great flames, with the Moon in the sky in the background

Moon Launch

The Command and Service Module (CSM) for Apollo 11 move from 134 work stand and final mate to service-module-to-launch-module adapter (SLA).

KSC-69P-247

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this detailed look at the floor of Komarov crater on the far side of the Moon.

Fractured Crater

The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle, in a landing configuration was photographed in lunar orbit from the Command and Service Module Columbia.

The Eagle Prepares to Land

This view from the Apollo 11 spacecraft shows the Earth rising above the moon's horizon.

Apollo 11 Mission Image - View of Moon Limb, with Earth on the Horizon

Lunar orbiter from Langley Research Lunar Orbiter Program.

Lunar Orbiter 1

Lunar Orbiter 1 new of the Moon and crescent Earth. This is the first good image of the Earth taken from the vicinity of the Moon, 380,000 km away.

First View of Earth From the Moon and Oblique View of the Lunar Surface

A shock of color on the Moon! The Lassell Massif (a so-called "red spot") in Mare Nubium appears orange in the center of this color composite image from the Wide Angle Camera aboard NASA's Lunar Re...

lunar surface with craters, seen from above

Color of the Lassell Massif

Orion, the Apollo 16 lunar module, as captured on April 23, 1972 by astronaut Charlie Duke.

spacecraft in the distance on the gray, sunlit lunar surface

Orion on the Horizon

A scanning electron microscope photograph of iron crystals which grow in a small vug or cavity in a recrystallized breccia (fragmented rock) from the Apollo 15 Hadley-Apennino lunar landing site.

Scanning Electron Microscope View of Iron Crystal

View of a lightning bolt during the launch of Apollo 12

Mobile launch tower on a stormy sky with a lightning bolt. The Saturn 5 rocket for the Apollo 12 mission was struck by lightning - twice.

Lightning Strikes Twice

A simple visualization of Moon orbiting Earth in a view from the north ecliptic pole.

Earth and Moon

Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, is photographed during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface.

Astronaut and lunar module on surface of moon

Apollo 11 Mission Image – Astronaut Edwin Aldrin

The Apollo 14 Command Module (CM) splashes down and two of its three main parachutes can be seen collapsing, as the 10-day mission comes to a safe and successful end.

Apollo 14 command module lands in the ocean

Apollo 14 Command Module Approaches Touchdown in South Pacific Ocean

Apollo 15 commander David R. Scott look at Genesis Rock, an ancient piece of primordial crust he found on the Moon.

Black and white image of man looking into sterile sample containment unit.

Genesis Rock

Like Earth, the Moon has a day side and a night side, which change as the Moon rotates.

Moon Phases

Between four and seven times a year, Earth, Moon and Sun line up just right to create the cosmic-scale shadow show known as an eclipse.

Composite of lunar eclipse phases over night sky

Eclipses

Several theories vie for dominance but most agree on one thing — Earth's Moon was born from destruction.

Artist depiction of two planets colliding.

Moon Formation

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