Rosetta’s VIRTIS instrument took this monochromatic view of the Moon in infrared light on 4 March 2005, before closest approach to Earth, from a distance of 400 000 kilometres and with a resolution of 100 kilometres per pixel. In this image, VIRTIS mainly saw the radiation emitted by the lunar surface, which is uniformly heated and independent on the solar illumination and on the latitude. This is visible in the white part of the image.