Preface
With the exception of the Sun, our Moon is probably the object of our skies that we take for granted the most. But in comparison to the Sun, which is a fairly common type of star in the observable universe, our Moon is not only unique, but perplexingly unique.
This article will first and foremost focus on the factual aspects of our heavenly neighbor, as they alone quite clearly demonstrate the anomalous nature of it. Because it further adds to the mystery, and because it's fun, a couple of images of intriguing objects will be featured at the end.
Origins
In spite of the many manned and unmanned space expeditions, we still don't understand how it originated. The main hypothesis is, that it is a piece of Earth that broke off in an ancient collision with another heavenly body.
Artist rendering of how the giant impact hypothesis might have looked like. Image credit: Joe Tucciarone |
Rest assured, this is merely a hypothesis which despite its many problems - the main one being the different composition of volatile elements in the planetary crusts [LINK1] [LINK2] - it still is the most favored idea in mainstream astronomy.
Of course the scientific establishment would never ever consider an artificial origin, even though there exist compelling evidence which might suggest the possibility of our Moon being a construct. Without jumping to conclusions, let us examine the facts as they are being presented to us by our space agencies.
Odd ball out
Our Moon is very different from the rest of the moons in our solar system, which in Mars' case either tend to be small, uneven rocks, or, looking at Jupiter and Saturn, the size of small planets.
The Moon, being bigger than Pluto, is the fifth biggest satellite in our solar system. As bodies of this magnitude are only seen around gas giants, and with Earth as the one exception, it is by far the biggest moon compared to the size of the planet.
It's 27% the size (circumference) of the Earth, thus making the ratio 1:4. As a comparison the ratio between Io and Jupiter is roughly 1:5000.
Earth, Moon and Ceres, scale comparison. Image credit: wikipedia |
By the way: its size in percentage, ~27.3% (of Earth's circumference) [LINK], matches its revolution period around the planet of 27.3 days very neatly.
Because of its big nature, it's sometimes referred to as our "secondary planet"; however, as big as it may be, it only holds a meek 1.2% percent of the Earths mass. That means that one would need roughly 81 of them to reach the same weight.
This suggests that our Moon either is extremely porous or hollow. To better understand the physical make-up, Apollo astronauts set up seismometers on the surface during their missions. Over 12 000 so called 'Moonquakes' were recorded up until 1977.
Apollo 11 astronauts conducting seismic experiments.
Image credit: NASA |
A part from the expected vibrations caused by meteorites, the data surprisingly revealed that most of the moonquakes occurred very deep underground, much deeper than on Earth. More striking, however, was the fact that they occurred every 27 days, like clockwork.
In fact, the dean of science journalism, Walter Sullivan of the New York Times, described it as being as unlikely as having the stock market rise/fall on the same date every month.*
The only explanation so far is to ascribe the regularity to the monthly tidal stresses, though we have never detected anything similar on Earth - A definite consensus as to the nature of this remarkable phenomenon remains to be reached.
Different types of moonquakes registered on seismometers.
Image credit: NASA |
Even stranger, the seismic data also recorded 28 shallow quakes. Reaching up to 5.5 on the Richter scale they would've definitively been felt by any astronaut standing on the surface. This type of activity is usually explained by the friction created by tectonic plates, but the Moon doesn't have them, so their nature are still unclear.
To top it all off Apollo 12 deliberately smashed a lunar probe into the surface to study the seismic effect it would have. To their astonishment, the Moon kept reverberating for nearly an hour. As Clive R. Neal, associate professor of civil engineering and geological sciences, describes it on nasa.gov "it was ringing like a bell." [LINK]
Impact site of the Saturn rocket booster - deliberately smashed into the Moon by the Apollo 13 mission. Image credit: NASA |
A similar experiment was done by Apollo 13 with the Saturn rocket booster, this time creating a much bigger collision resulting in a 7 minute build up to a peak with a reverberation lasting 3 hours and 20 minutes. [LINK] It is worth mentioning that even the biggest quakes on Earth stops shaking after a couple of minutes.
About a year ago, an article on phys.org made a big splash proclaiming to have detected a gigantic "metallic anomaly" residing under the surface of the biggest moon crater. In some instances it was even referred to as a "deep structure". Whether it's just remnants from a meteorite, as they speculate, or something else, is still up for debate.
Artist rendering of Earth's magnetosphere shielding us from solar winds. Image credit: NASA |
On another note: generally speaking only planets and suns have a strong enough magnetic field to shield them from solar and cosmic radiation; but in 1999 NASA's Lunar Prospector satellite forced us to rethink this idea.
Diagram showing the magnetic anomaly. Image credit: NASA |
It was on a mission to map the magnetosphere of our neighbor, when it strangely enough found a small area (10 km) capable of generating a local magnetic field with enough power to shield radiation, thus making it the smallest magnetosphere ever to be found.
Except for these "magnetic rocks" (NASA's explanation), only cosmic bodies the size of planets have been recorded to generate such type of fields. [LINK] Do note that Mars, Venus and Pluto all lack them.
Against all odds
Perhaps the most astonishing characteristics of our heavenly neighbor are the ones we observe with our naked eyes from the surface of the Earth.
Most people don't realize it, but the Moon actualy mimics the movements of our Sun very closely, and would one just take the time to observe the heavens from the same spot on a regular basis, one would find that the full Moon is at its highest and brightest in midwinter, when the Sun is at its lowest and dimmest, and the reverse is true for midsummer.
One would also find that at each spring and autumn equinox, the Sun and the Moon rise and set at the same proximity in our sky. To demonstrate this remarkable coincidence, have a look at these pictures I've borrowed from the book Who built the Moon?**:
The Moon and Sun set at the opposite lanes in the sky at midwinter, whereas the process is reversed in midsummer.
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At the autumn and spring equinox, they "sync up" and set at the same place.
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The Moon mimics the Sun. Image credit: J.C. Casado |
In my opinion the most striking of all the Moon peculiarities is the fact that it is 400 times smaller than the Sun, but by some inconceivably unlikely randomness, is placed exactly 400 times closer.
This of course means that it is the exact same size as the Sun from our point of view, which results in the occasional total solar eclipse.
The wondrous unlikelihood that allows for this event to take place often gets overshadowed (no pun intended) by the sheer awesomeness of the happening itself. But if one simply takes a couple of minutes to ponder what it really implies, perhaps one would also realize that this probably doesn't take place on any other planet in the whole galaxy, nor anywhere nearby.
Ultra HD photo of the solar eclipse. The Sun's corona looking like it belongs to the Moon. Image credit: hdr-astrophotography.com |
One i a zillion coincidence, or a signature by ancient architects? To use a quote from Deep Space Nine: I believe in coincidences. Coincidences happen everyday. But I don't trust coincidences.
Anomalies, Structures, Photos
Trust me when I say that there exist a plethora of footage featuring anomalous objects on and in the vicinity of the Moon. Although I am almost perversely fascinated by whistle blower accounts mentioning NASA airbrushing out alien buildings/domes from the photos taken by their satellites [LINK, LINK2], or by astronauts allegedly spilling the beans in regards to what they saw on the surface [LINK, LINK2]. I will here stick to a handful of the, in my opinion, best photographs.
The Moon Rocket
In this picture, take by either Armstrong/Aldrin on the Apollo 11 mission, we see a close up of what looks like a rocket shaped object with an exhaust flame.
As usually is the case with NASA, images featuring anomalies of this kind either gets the silent treatment or at best, are explained away as being smudge on the camera lens, problems with image processing etc.
I can only encourage the reader to take a closer look at the original picture on NASA's homepage (the "missile" can be found to the upper left) and contemplate if for yourself.
III-84M "The Shard"
Richard C. Hoagland is mostly known for his ground breaking book The Monuments on Mars, in which he analyzes Mars anomalies in meticulous detail. But he also gets credit for discovering some pretty amazing objects on the the Moon.
The best one is to be found on a picture taken in 1967 by Lunar Orbiter 3 called called "III-84M". Zoomed in, a tower of some kind, dubbed "The Shard", seems to be casting a long shadow in an otherwise barren landscape.
So far the only "debunking" I've come over stems from rationalwiki, where they say: "Lunar Orbiter used a wet film development process, and there are splatters all over its imagery as a consequence (fluids + zero-g = random messes).".
Of course it can't be entirely ruled out that we are seeing "a random mess of splatter", but in light of the similar findings captured on other parts, by other missions, it smells of a cop-out. The original photo can be viewed here.
ZOND-3, the Soviet Moon probe (1965)
In one of the first pictures ever of the backside of the Moon, taken by the Russian space probe ZOND-3, a most peculiar towering structure can be seen.
If this indeed is some kind of tower, it has to be several miles high. I've really tried to find any explanations as to the nature of it, alas to no avail.
Air brushed Department of Defense images
In 2004, a researcher named J.P. Skipper made some astonishing findings when scrutinizing the pictures taken during the US military (BMDO) project called Clementine. The picture above is just one of several in which one clearly can see tall objects blurred out.
No official comment has ever been given as to why these images have been edited, perhaps because it's too hard to explain them away as mere random processing artifacts. Though it is hard to imagine that these ones simply fell through the cracks. A deliberate soft-leak seems more likely.
The Department of Defense has since then taken down the website with the originals. However, the homepage has been archived by J.P. Skipper; you'll find it, a long with many other findings of high interest, here.
LCROSS
In 2000 NASA sent a probe on a mission to crash into the Moon's surface. The results were somewhat unexpected and maybe it was because they didn't disclose the whole truth on why they chose the spot they did.
The public video feed of the event was a travesty in so far that you can't really see anything but blurry pixels. But in one of the pictures taken from NASA controls, an interesting observation can be made.
Does it look natural to you? |
The Aristarchus Crater
Aristarchus crater. Image credit: Mike's Astroimagery UK |
Ever since man began pointing telescopes at our Moon, the Aristarchus crater has been a source of an inexplicable glow. For 350+ years now, we have descriptions of a blue fluorescent light at times surrounding the crater.
Transient lunar phenomena i.e. random changing of light/color of a certain lunar area is well known albeit not fully understood. And the Aristarchus crater is the spot which have the most activity.
Notice that it seem to have a geometric structure? Image credit: Credit: USGS/US Navy/Clementine Spacecraft |
So far, the only suggestion that has been seriously proposed is that the coloration might have something to do with radon 222 outgassing. A colorless nuclear gas. If that's the case, there sure seems to be a lot of it, in many colors, as this list of observations, from John Lear's great website, evidently suggests:
1650 Aristarchus "Red Hill." Mons Porphyrites Hevelius B.A.A. Lunar Sec. Circa. 1967, 2, No 8
1784 Aristarchus Nebulous bright spot of light Schroter Schroter 1791
1785 Aristarchus Nebulous bright spot of light Schroter Schroter 1791
1786 Dec 24 Aristarchus Extraordinarily bright Schroter Schroter 1791
1787 May 19-20 Aristarchus Extraordinarily bright von Bruhl Bode 1790; Schroter 1791; Herschel 1912
1788 Apr 9 Aristarchus; 1 hr Extraordinarily bright Bode Bode 1792b
1788 Apr 9-11 Aristarchus Bright spot 26" N of crater rim Schroter, Bode Schroter 1789, 1791, 1792a, 1792b
1788 Sep 26 Near Aristarchus; 30 min Bright spot 26" N of main crater Schroter Rozier 1788, 1792; Schroter 1791
1788 Dec 2, 5:35 am Aristarchus Extraordinarily bright, like star Schroter Schroter 1791
1785 Aristarchus Nebulous bright spot of light Schroter Schroter 1791
1786 Dec 24 Aristarchus Extraordinarily bright Schroter Schroter 1791
1787 May 19-20 Aristarchus Extraordinarily bright von Bruhl Bode 1790; Schroter 1791; Herschel 1912
1788 Apr 9 Aristarchus; 1 hr Extraordinarily bright Bode Bode 1792b
1788 Apr 9-11 Aristarchus Bright spot 26" N of crater rim Schroter, Bode Schroter 1789, 1791, 1792a, 1792b
1788 Sep 26 Near Aristarchus; 30 min Bright spot 26" N of main crater Schroter Rozier 1788, 1792; Schroter 1791
1788 Dec 2, 5:35 am Aristarchus Extraordinarily bright, like star Schroter Schroter 1791
1824 May 1 Near Aristarchus Blinking light, 9th to 10th mag.. on dark side Gobel Gobel 1826
1824 Oct 18 Aristarchus, vicinity Mingling of all kinds of colors in small spots in the W and NW of Aristarchus Gruithuisen Gruithuisen 1824; Fauth 1899
1825 Apr 22 Aristarchus and vicinity Periodic illumination Argelander, Gobel Argelander 1826, Gobel 1826
1866 Jun 10 Aristarchus Star like light Tempel Denning, Tel.Work p.121
1866 Jun 14-16 Aristarchus, vicinity Reddish yellow Tempel Tempel 1867
1866 Dark side Bright spots Hodgson Hodgson 1866
1867 Apr 9, 19h30m - 21h00m Aristarchus, vicinity; 1 hr 30 min Bright spot on dark side, 7th mag., becoming fainter after 20h15m UT Elger Elger 1868
1867 Apr 12, 07h30m - 08h30m Aristarchus, vicinity; 1 hr Bright spot on dark side, 7th mag.. Elger Webb 1962
1867 May 6-7 Aristarchus; at least several hours each night Left side of crater, very bright luminous point, appearing like a volcano Flammarion Flammarion 1884
1867 May 7 Aristarchus, vicinity Reddish yellow, beacon like light Tempel Tempel 1867; Astr. Reg. 1868
1884 Nov 29, 19h00m - 21h00m Aristarchus; 2 hr Nebulous at center; elsewhere features well defined Hislop Sirius 1885
1889 Jul 12, ~20h52m Aristarchus During lunar eclipse, brilliance in surrounding gloom was striking Krueger Krueger 1889; Fisher 1924
1891 May 23, ~18h20m Aristarchus region Lunar eclipse, half hour before end of totality, Aristarchus and region immediately N of it became conspicuous and increased in brightness from that time on W.E. Jackson Jackson 1890-91; Fisher 1924
1824 Oct 18 Aristarchus, vicinity Mingling of all kinds of colors in small spots in the W and NW of Aristarchus Gruithuisen Gruithuisen 1824; Fauth 1899
1825 Apr 22 Aristarchus and vicinity Periodic illumination Argelander, Gobel Argelander 1826, Gobel 1826
1866 Jun 10 Aristarchus Star like light Tempel Denning, Tel.Work p.121
1866 Jun 14-16 Aristarchus, vicinity Reddish yellow Tempel Tempel 1867
1866 Dark side Bright spots Hodgson Hodgson 1866
1867 Apr 9, 19h30m - 21h00m Aristarchus, vicinity; 1 hr 30 min Bright spot on dark side, 7th mag., becoming fainter after 20h15m UT Elger Elger 1868
1867 Apr 12, 07h30m - 08h30m Aristarchus, vicinity; 1 hr Bright spot on dark side, 7th mag.. Elger Webb 1962
1867 May 6-7 Aristarchus; at least several hours each night Left side of crater, very bright luminous point, appearing like a volcano Flammarion Flammarion 1884
1867 May 7 Aristarchus, vicinity Reddish yellow, beacon like light Tempel Tempel 1867; Astr. Reg. 1868
1884 Nov 29, 19h00m - 21h00m Aristarchus; 2 hr Nebulous at center; elsewhere features well defined Hislop Sirius 1885
1889 Jul 12, ~20h52m Aristarchus During lunar eclipse, brilliance in surrounding gloom was striking Krueger Krueger 1889; Fisher 1924
1891 May 23, ~18h20m Aristarchus region Lunar eclipse, half hour before end of totality, Aristarchus and region immediately N of it became conspicuous and increased in brightness from that time on W.E. Jackson Jackson 1890-91; Fisher 1924
1931 Aristarchus Bluish glare Goodacre, Molesworth Goodacre 1931
1949 Oct 7, ~02h54m Aristarchus Abnormally bright during lunar eclipse G.Brown, Hare Contrib. by Moore
1949 Nov 3, 01h06m Aristarchus Blue glare, base inner W wall Bartlett Bartlett 1967
1949 Oct 7, ~02h54m Aristarchus Abnormally bright during lunar eclipse G.Brown, Hare Contrib. by Moore
1949 Nov 3, 01h06m Aristarchus Blue glare, base inner W wall Bartlett Bartlett 1967
1950 Jun 27, 02h30m Aristarchus Blue glare, base inner W wall Bartlett Bartlett 1967
1950 Jun 27 Herodotus Bright point in crater Bartlett Strol. Astr. 1962
1950 Jun 28, 03h27m Aristarchus Blue glare, rim of W wall Bartlett Bartlett 1967
1950 Jun 29, 05h30m Aristarchus Strong bluish glare; E, SE wall Bartlett Bartlett 1967
1950 Jul 26, 02h52m Aristarchus Blue glare, base inner W wall Bartlett Bartlett 1967
1950 Jul 31, 04h50m Aristarchus Violet glare, E, NE rim Bartlett Bartlett 1967
1950 Aug 28, 04h25m Aristarchus Intense blue violet glare; E wall bright spot, E, NE rim Bartlett Bartlett 1967
1950 Jun 27 Herodotus Bright point in crater Bartlett Strol. Astr. 1962
1950 Jun 28, 03h27m Aristarchus Blue glare, rim of W wall Bartlett Bartlett 1967
1950 Jun 29, 05h30m Aristarchus Strong bluish glare; E, SE wall Bartlett Bartlett 1967
1950 Jul 26, 02h52m Aristarchus Blue glare, base inner W wall Bartlett Bartlett 1967
1950 Jul 31, 04h50m Aristarchus Violet glare, E, NE rim Bartlett Bartlett 1967
1950 Aug 28, 04h25m Aristarchus Intense blue violet glare; E wall bright spot, E, NE rim Bartlett Bartlett 1967
Luna 13, anomalous objects
In December 1966, Luna 13, an unmanned Russian space probe, became the third space craft to successfully land on the Moon. The first pictures it took features two objects that to this day no one has been able to explain.
This is part of the original photo that the Luna 13 took shortly after touch down. In it one can see two peculiar objects. Here they are isolated and magnified:
The most logical explanation, that they are parts of either the Luna 13 lander or some other man made probe hasn't been proven. In fact, the thorough research that has been done has had no success in matching them to anything of ours.
So, what are they doing there? Experts are still asking this very question.
The original photo can be found here.
End
What really lurks on its surface remains a secret for now, but amidst the rocks and lunar dust, surely there's something out of the ordinary there, wouldn't you think? Perhaps we will get some answers in a few years when SpaceX begins to go there.
Until then, let's at least keep an open mind.
Lights out. |
Links:
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1980LPSC...11.1847N&db_key=AST&page_ind=1&plate_select=NO&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_GIF&classic=YES
https://seismo.berkeley.edu/blog/2009/07/20/quakes-on-the-moon.html
https://blogs.agu.org/geospace/2017/08/30/moons-tidal-stress-likely-responsible-causing-deep-moonquakes-new-study-confirms/
https://web.archive.org/web/20100527121330/http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/results/magelres.htm
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/origin98/pdf/4045.pdf
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/moonfact.html
https://medium.com/remote-viewing-community-magazine/ingo-swanns-lunar-alien-viewing-confirmed-sergeant-karl-wolf-speaks-e9e67c26b99a
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/629282/Codename-Santa-Claus-Three-UFOs-were-on-moon-during-lunar-landings-claims-NASA-worker
http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/evidence-reports/2004/067/moon-towers.htm
Pictures (when not directly linked):
1st image: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images.seattleastro.org/app/events/images/893/medium/Picture1.jpg?1566000549
https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/Images/StarChild/questions/moon_formation.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Ceres_Earth_Moon_Comparison.png
https://moon.nasa.gov/system/internal_resources/details/original/37_Apollo_11_Seismic_Experiment.jpeg
https://sci.esa.int/documents/34817/35562/1567218128240-solarwind-interaction-magnetosphere410.jpg
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/435094main_m109420042le_thumb.jpg?itok=pnYkCSYA
1st image: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images.seattleastro.org/app/events/images/893/medium/Picture1.jpg?1566000549
https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/Images/StarChild/questions/moon_formation.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Ceres_Earth_Moon_Comparison.png
https://moon.nasa.gov/system/internal_resources/details/original/37_Apollo_11_Seismic_Experiment.jpeg
https://sci.esa.int/documents/34817/35562/1567218128240-solarwind-interaction-magnetosphere410.jpg
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/435094main_m109420042le_thumb.jpg?itok=pnYkCSYA
https://hdr-astrophotography.com
Gif-animation from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G10m2ZZRH4U
Gif-animation from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G10m2ZZRH4U