Odds & Ends

Merry Christmas to you as well, Copernicus. Thank you for illuminating all that come your way...Here's to your hard work, and the inspiration you bring.

In current news is the story that Arizona State University, which hosts the LROC site, is programming computers to look for signs of aliens in LROC images… Since I believe they are looking for straight edges, in all likelihood they would miss this next image.

No collection of Lunar anomaly images would be complete without an image of an alien skull, so today I will provide just that!

I have taken the liberty of rotating the image, and this is how it appears when approaching from the east.



Notice the very high forehead and the short jaws on the skull at the top of the image!

A bonus: the formation at the bottom right appears similar to the toy where you build segmented insects.

I realize that this may become, um, controversial, so I have taken the liberty of, uh, airbrushing the NAC number out, so that the skull (and insect) won’t disappear any time soon!

Remember, you saw it here first!

C

Excellent!!!

Do you think what Arizona is doing is "prearranged"? Like letting the cat out of the bag incrementally?

Just a thought....................

GREAT WORK ON THIS PHOTO!!!!

:-)

Interesting skull, Copernicus...

Thank you for demonstrating why though it is an excellent idea to search with computer software - Research such as yours is crucial. Thanks for the hard work you do!

@Rick

I think the backer of the ASU search, Paul Davies, is quite serious in his proposal to look for signs of aliens on the Moon. The timing of this story, 9 months later, is more what I am wondering about.

C

Yes...I have to wonder how it might affect government funding of research at Arizona....Do you think that might be an idea of substance? Thanks, Rick

Earth has them… and even Mars has them… so why not the Moon? I’ve never seen one on the Moon before… until now!

No image collection would be complete without a “balancing rock” picture, and so today I’d like to present the only balancing rock on the Moon… at least so far!

The following image is once again from the crater Aristarchus… Look to the center of the image beside the “river”…



It is a little hard to see here, so I’ll zoom in to 300%:



I must admit that the rock appears to be ‘cheating’, and seems to have a strut holding it upright at the left on the bottom!

Anyway, I felt this would be appropriate as we approach the cusp of the New Year… on the balance of the old and the new, so-to-speak.

Here’s wishing everyone a Happy New Year!!

I personally feel that 2012 will be a ‘signal’ year for all sorts of new happenings… and new and exciting ideas!! Perhaps more people will awaken to the wonders of the universe!

And @ Rick: Look for the light at the end of the tunnel.

Copernicus

Happy New Year!!!

~Copernicus~

Thank you so much for the pictures of the moon. Sorry its been so long since I've been on but thought I'd check the site while I have some free time. I really enjoy how you show us pieces of the moon we could never dream of seeing before. Keep up the great work.

Take care
Rhiannon

Thank you, Mystery!!

Time… for the first post of 2012!

Today I have a simple feature where the object in the light seems to have a mismatched shadow.



As you can see, this is a small feature, and we will need to zoom in to see it properly.



Now we can see what appears to be a smooth rock with a bit of a protrusion on the end… not particularly noteworthy.

But… the rock’s shadow, to the left, seems to show something different! What we see appears to be a classic radar dish, with a long spike in the center!

With only one image available of this object, it’s not possible to determine whether the spike shadow is actually from the rock… or something else.

Until next time…

C

Thank You for the continuing excellent work!!!

I'm curious as to how big the "radar dish" might look to be? Any thought's?

And please forgive me, but when was this photo taken? 1969?

And not that it really matters, but how far away is this location relative to our moon landing sites?

The anomalies keep coming to your sharp eye!

Many thanks, Rick

@Rick

Hi, the rock object is about 11 feet in diameter, and the image was taken on Nov19/10. The location is near the crater Copernicus B, well away from the Apollo landing sites.

On your previous question, I think the program would be funded separate from the rest.

Hope this helps.

C

Hello everyone!

I have been extremely busy in the last while, so my weekly post is slightly overdue. Today’s post is rather subtle, and I originally thought this anomaly would be too subtle for most people, but an anomaly is an anomaly!

Here is what appears to be a simple crater…



When zoomed up a notch, we can see it a little better:



While looking at this crater, I was struck by the appearance of the 2 fantails of dust emerging from the crater to the East. To me, it seemed like each dust stream was the exhaust from separate fans in the crater!

Here, I’ve arrowed each stream:



Now, a second high res image of this should show differences in the dust streams if this was the case, but… yes, you guessed it… there’s only the one high res image of this.

Until, next time!

C

Hi C,

Interesting stuff! I'd never have seen that myself and I used to do close inspection......

Anyway, what do you think might create that sort of image? Any chance of image anomaly?

I'm trying to imagine what would need that kind of ducting..... Since "blowing dust" would need some sort of force acting on the surface dust to move it......We saw that in Lunar Module departure (and arrival) footage....Or maybe some something spewing from underneath the crater, but what?

I remember hearing an interview on TV as a kid from some NASA guy explaining how the dust, when disturbed, would fly in a straight line, only affected by gravity. Since the moon is (was?) apparently gas-less or "void", there was no gases (air) to cause the dust to create a "cloud". It simply flew along until gravity pulled it back to the surface.....Seemed they referred to "2001: A Space Odyssey" saying that was the one photographic "blooper" in the movie: Dust swirling on the moon surface when one of the craft was landing......

Great stuff!! Thanks C!!!!

Your posts are always thought provoking, Copernicus. Whatever it is in that image, thanks for taking the time to find it and share it!

@Rick

It just appeared to me that the dust was being blown out of the crater by something...

C

Good afternoon everyone, and time for another post!

Though not an actual oddity, it is always interesting to find another cave or pit on the Moon. Today I have another triangular pit (or cave) candidate for you, and once again it is in the crater Aristarchus.

To locate this one, we will reference Cave Candidate Ari1 previously posted in this thread.



As you can see, this new pit is south of Ari1.

Here it is at full res:



And then at 200%...



There are 2 additional high res NAC’s of this pit, if anyone (James/LCG?) is interested.

So… that’s 2 triangular pits in Aristarchus… could there be more?

That’s all for now!

C

Copernicus wrote:@Rick

It just appeared to me that the dust was being blown out of the crater by something...

C

Hi C !

What would create that "something"? Seems there might be some sort of impact, perhaps? I dunno....I'm trying to "rule out" what might be some sort of natural phenomenon....Then, contemplate what might be possible causes.....

Certainly would suggest, after ruling out conventional explanations, that the "hollow moon" theory might not be so bizarre after all.....

Have a great night, Rick :-)

@Rick

If another image of the blowing dust became available and it showed a different pattern to the dust streams, then it would seem to indicate an underground installation of some sort. This would not even come close to validating the “hollow moon” hypothesis, though.

C

Copernicus wrote:@Rick

If another image of the blowing dust became available and it showed a different pattern to the dust streams, then it would seem to indicate an underground installation of some sort. This would not even come close to validating the “hollow moon” hypothesis, though.

C

Thanks C!

I'd not think the "hollow moon" idea as a potential reality, but then truth is stranger than fiction......:-)

Do you think the current stereo mapping probes may yield some additional info?

My thought is, for the sake of argument, if there were some sort of sub-terrain operation going on that created the "exhaust", could it be shutdown during photography? Whether the two circumstances were related or not......

My hope is another smoking gun, er, photograph shows up!!

Cheers, Rick

Well, it will be interesting, I think...Your thoughts, Copernicus?

Well, January is almost over (yah!), and we’re just about ready to roll into February!

And speaking of rolling, today I have updated information on an old post from NASA and thelivingmoon .com concerning a large rolling boulder in the crater Vitello.

Here is Vitello at 64m/pixel…



The approximate location of the boulder is marked with a small, light blue ‘x’.



Originally discovered by NASA way back when, this is what they had to say about it:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/lo5_h168_2.html

Lunar Orbiter 5 image of a boulder (just right of center) which has rolled and slid down a slope and left a trail on the Moon's surface. This is within the crater Vitello, and demonstrates the small role that such processes, called gravity wasting, have on the lunar surface. The main source of surface modification on the Moon is meteorite and micrometeorite bombardment.

Note this info:

Area or Feature Type: crater, landslide

Though the post on that page is 7 years old, there are links to download the image… it’s probably not worth downloading, though, given the low resolution (which is stated on the page as Instrument Resolution (pixels): Not Available).

Thelivingmoon .com did a feature post on this image, and there was some rather over-the-top speculation on whether this was actually a boulder or not.

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/02files/Moon_Images_A06.html

Some of the links on the page no longer work, and you’ll note that the main Vitello image has the wrong orientation.

Anyway, the page is about 5 years old now, and obviously no one was all that interested in following it up with LROC images of the boulder… so I decided to do it!

Here is the boulder at 50% of full size from LROC:



And at full size:



We might as well zoom in:



Yep, looks like a boulder to me!!

There was also some speculation about the small rolling boulder to the right in the half-size image… about how its path had changed…



And zoomed in…



It also looks like a boulder to me.

So… as for the large boulder… it is about 93 feet long, and given NASA’s explanation for it, I still have to wonder what could start such a large object rolling!!

Until next time…

C

Hello C,

Is it possible that some sort of tremor on the moon could be sufficient to cause these massive boulders to move?

Seems there was discussion about seismic activity on the moon...Wonder if that could be a source of motion?

I will look into it further...

Cheers, Rick

Hi Rick,

Any luck on the seismic activities research?

C

Hi C,

Hope all is well!

Well, what I find is the moon has been seismically dead for over 3 billion years (http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/moon/moon_interior.html) and that most vibratory action comes from meteor impacts.

Fact is it is estimated that the actual activity is about 100 millionth of the earth's activity (http://www.asi.org/adb/m/03/07/seismic-activity.html), so it really minuscule.....

However, in the same reference mentioned in the statement above, there is evidence that the moon has "..very low elastic wave..." which translates into low attenuation of other shocks like meteor impacts. In addition, that allows shocks to the moon to reverberate for several minutes with slow decay of the vibration.

So briefly, it would seem that shocks to the moons surface (meteors) would be the source of energy which might "shake" the boulder and roll it along....perhaps....

It would be really neat if there were a way to determine whether the circumstances exist on the moon's surface to "enhance" the possibility of the boulders to move with some sort of vibration. Maybe a slight decline, for example....

Still the size of those boulders suggest they are pretty heavy and would need quite a bit of energy to move....Unless someone helped them along??

Cheers, Rick