Due to this limitation, you may experience unexpected results within this site. Due to this limitation, you may experience unexpected results within this site. Subtle hues provide clues of violent impacts and a volcanic past. I remember later, though, watching color movies of the astronauts' adventures and noticing the bright American flag and splashy colors of the lunar module's gold foil standing out against various shades of a dull lunar backdrop. Blame it on absorption and reflection.
Humans see only a tiny slice of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Color is our limited perception of the way materials absorb and reflect light. An object or planet appears a certain color because competing wavelengths of light to which our eyes are sensitive get absorbed instead of reflected back to us. Materials split the visible spectrum according to their composition, providing us with a fingerprinting tool for the remote identification of planetary rocks, minerals, and atmospheric gases. Dionysius crater on the edge of Mare Tranquillitatis shows striking contrasts. From space, Earth is blue because of an abundance of liquid water.