This INSANE Edited Photo of the Super Moon Looks Straight Out of Star Wars

If you, like me, have spent your entire life admiring the natural cosmic beauty of the moon, then this picture is about to completely blow you away. Dedicated space-lovers captured some truly breathtaking shots of February's Super Snow Moon, but one photographer took his love for space and photography a step further by editing his picture to create a colorful image of Earth's moon. Yes, the moon actually has some colors (these ones are just digitally enhanced)!

This incredible snapshot was captured and edited by space enthusiast and self-taught photographer Andrew McCarthy (Cosmic_background on Instagram), who planned for weeks to snap the picture and has since edited four versions of the super moon photo, making it look like a planet straight out of Star Wars.

"Our eyes are not sensitive enough to discern the various colors in the lunar regolith," McCarthy told POPSUGAR via email. "So, to me, being able to pull so much depth out of an otherwise flat image feels like having a superpower." According to NASA, lunar regolith (aka lunar soil) varies in color as a result of different levels of iron and titanium present in the soil. While these variations are typically subtle to the human eye, McCarthy's color-embellished photo exaggerates the differences to create explosions of color across the surface of the moon. As McCarthy explained in one of his Reddit posts, he "extracted the color data from 150k images of the moon so you can see where impacts 'paint' the moon with different minerals."

The entire photography process takes several hours of patience and involves snapping thousands of photos from all different angles to stack them together and edit the pictures into one high-quality image. "I'll check atmospheric conditions and weather reports, make sure seeing is good, skies are clear, and humidity won't be too bad. This is days in advance," McCarthy explained. "My biggest challenge is the light pollution out here, and the accessibility of dark skies. To get the best views of some objects, I need to drive for hours, set up my gear in the freezing cold, and hope all my batteries last long enough to capture something great."

McCarthy is a business operations manager for a software company from Elk Grove, CA, but his love for space — particularly the moon — inspired him to transform an already amazing closeup of the super moon into a colorful work of art that is truly making me question everything I know about my favorite space rock. "My goal from these images is to get people to stop and appreciate the natural beauty in our skies, and it is incredibly rewarding that I have accomplished that," McCarthy said. And, as if his photo isn't already mind-blowingly cool, you can check out the high-definiton version on McCarthy's Reddit page. Keep reading to see a comparison of McCarthy's original super moon photo as well as the color-embellished version.