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Orange Soil on the Moon In December 1972, during the final Apollo mission, astronaut and geologist Harrison Schmitt made an electrifying discovery at Shorty Crater in the Taurus-Littrow valley. While exploring with Eugene Cernan, he spotted a vivid patch of bright orange soil standing out against the Moon’s gray landscape.At first glance, it looked like rust — but it was something far more ancient and exotic.This wasn’t oxidized iron. It was tiny beads of volcanic glass, forged in violent lunar fire fountains more than 3.6 billion years ago. Molten rock shot high into the vacuum from deep within the Moon, cooling into microscopic orange and black glass spheres as it fell back to the surfac Schmitt’s excited call over the radio captured the moment perfectly — one of the most surprising geological finds of the entire Apollo program. What they brought back (sample 74220) revealed that the Moon had once been geologically alive, with explosive eruptions rivaling Hawaii’s fire fountains, but on a planetary scale. A splash of color from the Moon’s fiery youth — proof that even today, its ancient secrets can still surprise us.

New views of Mars, processed from images sent back by Perseverance June 3rd. I love Mars, always have, and can find beauty in most of its landscapes, but even I have to admit this area is a barren, asteroid-blasted, rubble-wrecked quarry... Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/S Atkinson