Mysterious flashing lights seen on the Moon
December 11th 2007 07:12
Mysterious flashing lights seen on the Moon, I realise that we are in the festive season
But flashing lights? People have claimed to have seen flashing lights on the Moon for around 1500 years the Babylonians, and Chinese have written texts relating to lights seen on the surface of the Moon.
The hard proof is not definitive as to the cause of this phenomenon called Transient Lunar Phenomena, (TLPs) there are several theories related to turbulence in Earth's atmosphere and even psychological effects like hysteria. (The season for werewolf’s) was bad this year) There are many articles relating to TLP whereby people have seen a bright point of light on the surface of the Moon.
You can actually see the effects of meteor impacts if you’re lucky enough to have a telescope pointing at the Moon and seeing a “live" impact happen. In my 50 years of stargazing I have only seen one episode that looked like a very small blurry grey blob of dust presumably caused by a meteorite hitting the Moon’s surface bu,t so far no lights.
On Jul. 19, 1969, Apollo 11 crew had just engaged lunar orbit when Mission Control received word that amateur astronomers had reported transient phenomena in the vicinity of the crater Aristarchus. Asked to check out the situation, Neil Armstrong looked out his window and observed an "area that is considerably more illuminated than the surrounding area. “It just has seems to have a slight amount of fluorescence to it." Although he wasn't sure, Armstrong believed the region was near the crater Aristarchus.
Now the mystery surrounding the lights seems to have been solved the lastest Moon probes like Clementine have documented pockets of radon-rich gas leaking out from beneath the lunar surface.
But flashing lights? People have claimed to have seen flashing lights on the Moon for around 1500 years the Babylonians, and Chinese have written texts relating to lights seen on the surface of the Moon.
The hard proof is not definitive as to the cause of this phenomenon called Transient Lunar Phenomena, (TLPs) there are several theories related to turbulence in Earth's atmosphere and even psychological effects like hysteria. (The season for werewolf’s) was bad this year) There are many articles relating to TLP whereby people have seen a bright point of light on the surface of the Moon.
Image of TLP taken by Leon Stuart, 1953 November 15
You can actually see the effects of meteor impacts if you’re lucky enough to have a telescope pointing at the Moon and seeing a “live" impact happen. In my 50 years of stargazing I have only seen one episode that looked like a very small blurry grey blob of dust presumably caused by a meteorite hitting the Moon’s surface bu,t so far no lights.
On Jul. 19, 1969, Apollo 11 crew had just engaged lunar orbit when Mission Control received word that amateur astronomers had reported transient phenomena in the vicinity of the crater Aristarchus. Asked to check out the situation, Neil Armstrong looked out his window and observed an "area that is considerably more illuminated than the surrounding area. “It just has seems to have a slight amount of fluorescence to it." Although he wasn't sure, Armstrong believed the region was near the crater Aristarchus.
Now the mystery surrounding the lights seems to have been solved the lastest Moon probes like Clementine have documented pockets of radon-rich gas leaking out from beneath the lunar surface.
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Comment by jon
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Comment by CarlCan
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Hi Jon,
Radon is a radioactive element formed by the decay of the element radium. The light is produced by charges particles interacting with the gas to produce a glow called the 'Cerenkov radiation' effect.
Comment by Damo
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Comment by jon
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UFO's would have been cool. If not headlights then at least a spacecraft wreck that was reflecting sunlight.
Comment by CarlCan
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Sadly no aliens no UFOs just boring old science.
Would have been cool to have at least a wreck of an UFO but we have NASA and the former Soviet Union to thank for that. There is plenty of hardware on the Moon form the many missions by both governments.
There are a few mirrors left on the Moon from the Apollo missions used to reflect laser light back to Earth to measure the distance between the Earth and Moon it may well be that a mirror could used to reflect sunlight back to Earth...Perhaps I could contemplate the math involved to see if that would be possible ....perhaps in my next lifetime.
Comment by Louie
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All jokes aside, thanks for this post I found it fascinating.
Comment by CarlCan
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Hi Louie, thank you for the comment.
Unfortunateloy the Moon was a popular dumping ground for emerging technology. Sadly in today's world it is much the same through our solar system and beyond.....