On April 21, 1972, NASA astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 mission, took a far-ultraviolet photo of Earth with an ultraviolet camera. Young’s original black-and-white picture was printed on Agfacontour professional film three times, with each exposure recording only one light level. The three light levels were then colored blue (dimmest), green (next brightest), and red (brightest), resulting in the enhanced-color image seen here.
Dr. George Carruthers, a scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory, developed the ultraviolet camera – the first Moon-based observatory – for Apollo 16. Apollo 16 astronauts placed the observatory on the Moon in April 1972, where it sits today on the Moon’s Descartes highland region, in the shadow of the lunar module Orion.
Image credit: NASA
1972年4月21日，NASA宇航员约翰·W·杨（John W. Young），即阿波罗16号任务的指挥官，用一台紫外线相机拍摄了一张地球的远紫外线照片。杨的原始黑白照片用Agfacontour专业胶片进行了三次曝光，每次曝光记录一种亮度水平。随后，这三种亮度水平被分别着色为蓝色（最暗）、绿色（次亮）和红色（最亮），从而得到了这里看到的增强色图像。
美国海军研究实验室的科学家乔治·卡鲁瑟斯博士（Dr. George Carruthers）为阿波罗16号开发了这台紫外线相机——这也是第一个月球上的天文观测台。1972年4月，阿波罗16号的宇航员将这个观测台放置在月球的笛卡尔高地区域，目前它仍在那里，位于登月舱猎户座的阴影下。
图片来源: NASA
