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100 square kilometres of Moon, photographed from the space station

Qurexa Editorial Team12 October 20265 min read 0 0
100 square kilometres of Moon, photographed from the space station

What happened

NASA has published an astronaut photograph of a patch of southern Madagascar made of the same kind of rock that forms the bright highlands of the Moon. The picture was taken from the International Space Station on 28 August 2026. NASA's Earth Observatory published it as its Image of the Day on 5 October 2026, and a fuller write-up followed on 11 October. The place is called the Saririaky massif. From orbit it shows up as a pale, bright area standing out against the darker scrubland and reddish soil around it. The rock is anorthosite. It is an igneous rock, which means it formed from cooling magma, and specifically an intrusive one, meaning it cooled slowly underground rather than erupting. Slow cooling gives it large mineral crystals. That combination is what makes the lunar comparison more than a nice line. The Moon's bright highlands, the pale areas you can see from your garden with the naked eye, are largely anorthosite. It is the rock the Apollo missions brought back samples of. Scientists estimate the Saririaky formation is at least 600 million years old. The exposed outcrop covers about 100 square kilometres, or roughly 40 square miles.

Why this matters

The interesting part is not that the rock looks like the Moon. It is what it records. The massif sits in a zone where rock was reshaped by enormous heat and pressure. That deformation is linked to a specific event: the collision of landmasses that became Africa, India, Madagascar, Australia and Antarctica as the supercontinent Gondwana came together. So a bright patch visible from orbit is a surviving piece of one of the largest events in the planet's history. Madagascar sits where it does today because that supercontinent later broke apart. There is also a reason this kind of image is taken in the first place. Astronaut photography from the space station is one of the longest-running Earth observation programmes there is. Astronauts photograph the surface with handheld cameras, and because they have been doing it for decades, the archive shows how coastlines, cities, glaciers and forests have changed over time. It is a scientific resource that happens to produce beautiful pictures, rather than the other way around. And all of it is public. NASA's Earth Observatory publishes the images with explanations written by scientists, free to anyone.

What the evidence actually says

One correction is worth making, because headlines about this kind of story often get it slightly wrong. Anorthosite is not rare on Earth. Large deposits occur in several parts of the world, including eastern Canada, Scandinavia, southern India and Madagascar. There are well-known examples in the United States too. This is not a freak piece of the Moon that landed in Africa. What is less common is the particular variety that most closely resembles lunar rock. The nearly pure, high-calcium type found in the Moon's highlands is unusual on Earth, even though anorthosite in general is not. The second thing to be clear about is the age. The figure given is 'at least 600 million years old', which is a floor rather than a precise measurement. Dating deformed rock is difficult, and the massif has been through later episodes of heat and pressure that complicate the picture. Third, this is not a new discovery. The Saririaky massif is a known geological feature that has been studied before. What is new is this particular photograph and NASA's published explanation of it. So the accurate summary is modest and still remarkable: an astronaut photographed a large, old, bright outcrop of a rock type that also makes up the Moon's highlands, and NASA used the picture to explain how it got there.

Practical advice

This one has a genuinely enjoyable thing you can do with it, and it costs nothing. The next clear night, look at the Moon. The pale areas are the highlands, and that is the anorthosite. The dark patches are the maria, which are ancient lava plains. You can see the difference with your eyes alone, and binoculars make it obvious. If you want to go further, NASA's Earth Observatory publishes a new image with a scientist's explanation most days, at earthobservatory.nasa.gov. It is free, there is no account to create, and the writing is pitched at general readers. The archive of astronaut photography is also public. For anyone with children who have gone off science, this kind of thing works better than a textbook. A photograph of a real place, with a real explanation of how it came to look that way, is a short route into geology, plate tectonics and planetary science all at once. And if you ever get the chance to see a piece of lunar anorthosite in person, several UK museums have displayed Apollo samples over the years. Check what is currently on show before travelling.

What to know

An astronaut on the International Space Station photographed the Saririaky massif in southern Madagascar on 28 August 2026. NASA's Earth Observatory published it on 5 October, with a longer write-up on 11 October. The massif is made of anorthosite, the rock that forms the Moon's bright highlands. It is at least 600 million years old and its exposed outcrop covers about 100 square kilometres. The rock sits in a zone deformed by the collision of landmasses that formed the supercontinent Gondwana. Anorthosite is not rare on Earth, with large deposits in Canada, Scandinavia, southern India and elsewhere. The nearly pure, high-calcium type that most closely matches lunar rock is less common. This is a new photograph of a known feature, not a new discovery. Sources: NASA Earth Observatory / NASA Science, "Moon-Like Madagascar", Image of the Day 5 October 2026, https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/moon-like-madagascar/ ; ScienceDaily, "NASA spots a giant patch of Moon-like rock on Earth", 11 October 2026, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/10/261008102707.htm ; NASA Earth Observatory, "Montana's Moon-Like Rocks", https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/146650/montanas-moon-like-rocks This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.

#NASA#geology#space station#Madagascar#Earth observation#science

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