For more than 350 years, scientific examination of the Moon was limited to observations made at visible wavelengths. Beginning in the 1960s, instruments coupled to telescopes and flown aboard lunar orbiting spacecraft began to detect previously unknown surface characteristics in images recorded at visible wavelengths and beyond. Perhaps the most famous are false-color images revealing brightness variations within lava flows due to different chemical compositions in the lunar maria. The most prominent example is the dark band of lavas along the outer edges of Mare Serenitatis. Spectral imaging analysis identified this dark band as titanium-rich lavas, while the lighterhued lavas seen elsewhere on the Moon were found to be titanium-poor.
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