The moon - its mysteries and secrets

It would seem that the Moon is always in sight and it cannot be connected with any national secrets. Nevertheless, some secrets of the Moon, apparently, are carefully hidden. The strangeness of research into the night star makes us think about this. Published information about the results of flights to the Moon is only part of the information obtained. And yet, sometimes you can notice some “traces” leading to steel safes.

1973 - the Soviet news agency Novosti informed Western readers (but not citizens of their country!) about the mysterious discovery of Lunokhod 2:

The Lunokhod began exploring a strange piece of lunar material that was ejected from the lunar interior during the formation of a large crater. This one-meter-long slab, which resembled the panel of a modern house, turned out to be completely monolithic. The cart's pressure of a hundred atmospheres left only a faint trace on the thin layer of dust that covered it. The slab has a smooth surface, while the giant rocks that lie nearby are covered in crater holes left by tiny ones.

A study of stones at the foot of the ancient Taurus Mountains showed that they had been lying there for tens and even hundreds of millions of years. The mysterious slab looks significantly younger... It was decided to study it further to try to determine its chemical composition and magnetic properties... Most of the stone fragments around are probably the result of the formation of the crater. The stone slab that surprised scientists clearly has nothing to do with this.

Despite the “artificial” appearance of the slab and the enormous interest of scientists and the public in it, there were no more publications about this matter. This is not surprising - after all, detection promises new, strategically important advantages in technology, economics and politics...

Accusations of concealing information continue to be heard against NASA. Thus, the American researcher J.H. Leonard is confident in the presence of intelligent beings from other worlds on the Moon. He bluntly noted: “Ignorance of their goals led to the secretion of the truth about the Moon.” F. Steckling also wrote about the secrets of the Moon:

It is clear that the military is trying to protect the country. This may be why they keep a lot of things regarding the Moon as secret as possible... While "protecting" the unsuspecting public is justified, in some cases "overprotecting" can also be harmful to the minds... I'm sure there are plenty of pictures that may remain unanalyzed by NASA due to lack of money, but I also know that many close-up photographs are placed in classified files.

And although the books of Leonard and Steckling are rather naive and have little evidence, their fears about the classification of part of the lunar information, perhaps, find indirect confirmation.

Thus, American engineer V. Sacheri published a detailed description of his attempts to see the original photographs of the Apollo expeditions, which J. H. Leonard referred to. It turned out that access to the lunar materials storage facility in Houston is burdened with all the trappings of secrecy. After many days of delays, filling out a large number of forms and security checks, Sacheri was finally allowed into the storage facility for 24 hours, but... with the condition that he would not have a camera, pen, paper, or even a calculator! He was not left unattended for a minute; he was even escorted to the dining room and to the toilet.

A very strange regime for storing purely scientific data about the demilitarized Moon... True, Sacheri himself claims that there were reasons for this - he allegedly himself saw unusually clear photographs of what seemed to him to be traces, machines and structures of intelligent beings. However, having ordered copies of them, I only received something vague...

Against the background of numerous unfounded and contradictory statements by ufologists, the articles of the American enthusiast R. Smith stand out noticeably. Over the course of several years, comparing photographs of our satellite obtained from Earth and spacecraft, he encountered a number of interesting contradictions. In the journal Selenology, R. Smith wrote:

The US government has had the ability to alter images using computer technology at least since the Lunar Orbiters. Assuming that alien artifacts were discovered on the Moon, there is no reason to believe that the American public could have been informed about this.

He suspected retouching of images of Cape Agar in the Sea of ​​Crisis in photographs of the Lunar Orbiter 4 station and the Apollo 15 and 17 expeditions. In those photographs, R. Smith was unable to detect some surface features that are clearly visible from the Earth. In particular, in the high-resolution image transmitted by the Lunar Orbiter-4 photo probe, instead of Cape Agar, only a “large white spot” is visible. And the US Air Force analyst, to whom the puzzled researcher showed photos of this place taken from Apollo 17, considered that the Cape was heavily retouched.

R. Smith considers another case of retouching of Apollo 17 images to be a small isthmus that connects the hill to the northwest of Yerkes Crater with the edge of the Mare Crisis. This feature was not only observed visually from Earth, but it was also found in images from Lick Observatory, Lunar Orbiter 4, and Apollo 16 as a “white bridge-like feature.” Apollo 17 flew directly over the “bridge” and took two photographs in which... there is no hint of the isthmus. “These images are in direct contradiction to other NASA images. Clearly something is a lie! - wrote R. Smith.

The researcher considers three curious platforms with “sharply defined rectangular shadows” near the Archimedes crater to be another example of hiding images of some details of the lunar surface. It turned out that the platforms are clearly visible in the Lunar Orbiter 4 photo, but in the Apollo 15 image, instead of the rises, one can see “a hazy spot in each case, as if it had been cleaned up.” R. Smith noted: “My opinion: the shadows in the picture hide the existence of artifacts that have been retouched.”

It is clear why R. Smith titled one of his articles in Selenology rather harshly: “Patterns of deception. Why you shouldn't trust NASA images." However, his publications did not cause any noticeable reaction. Although, this was to be expected, regardless of whether he was mistaken or not...

The witness in the “case” of censorship of space images at NASA was D.M. Har, who worked at NASA’s Houston Photo Laboratory. She kindly forwarded me her article about the strange encounter:

…While working in the darkroom, I wandered into one of the adjacent rooms, designated as a “Closed Area.” I had secret clearance, so it wasn’t scary... In this room, a mosaic was being made on a large table. The mosaic consisted of several small images taken from satellites and stitched together to create a large image of the earth's surface... As I looked at these images, which were stacked like tiles on a floor, I noticed a small round dot near what appeared to be a wooded area.

I asked the laboratory assistant: “What is this?” He replied: “I can’t tell you! What do you think it looks like?” I said, “It looks like a white spot on the film that didn’t develop,” to which he began to argue, “But the white bubbles in the emulsion don’t cast round shadows on the surface.” Then I noticed that the white spot and the trees were casting shadows at the same angles, and I realized that this bright white dot was a solid object and not a flaw in the film emulsion. I asked: “Is this a UFO?” He shook his head smiling: “I can’t say.” I then asked him what he would do with this information, and he informed me of orders to remove these “things” from all photographs before they were published.

D. Har's story was captured on film by a Japanese group who specially visited America to film the film in June 1992. Later, D. Har herself spoke in the American press. And it doesn’t matter whether the object she saw was something anomalous or just a large hot air balloon (a hot air balloon) - NASA’s very fear of leaking this kind of information is curious.

The interview with Karl Wolf, who worked as a technician in the 4444th Technical Intelligence Group at the US Tactical Air Command Headquarters at Langley Field, is also quite interesting. He was involved in interpreting photographs of U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and spy satellites. But in 1966, it was connected to the processing of the first images of the surface of our satellite obtained by the Lunar Orbiter 1 space station.

Firstly, Wolf was surprised by the fact that the initial processing of lunar images was carried out not by NASA specialists in Houston, but at the Langley Air Force Base (note that the CIA headquarters is also located in Langley). Moreover, this work was carried out with all the signs of secrecy - with special passes, accompanying officers and restrictions on communication between employees.

“I saw geometric shapes. I saw the structures and this is the best answer I can give you. I saw structures that were not natural structures on the lunar surface... They were several miles on the surface... I often remember seeing a tower with reflectors on it, round objects that looked like telemetry dish covers... I actually thought that a report about this might appear on the news... I remember waiting and waiting and watching the news every night. But nothing happened!”

NASA's jealous attitude towards photographs of strange phenomena on the Moon was reported by a former engineer of this department, K. Johnston.

1996, March 21 - at a press conference in Washington in front of 16 television cameras, he told how he was one of the first to see a movie just filmed by the Apollo 14 expedition. There supposedly 5-6 lights were visible in one of the craters and something like a plume of smoke. The next day, Johnston told his work colleagues about this. But when the film was re-screened, those shots turned out to be cut out on the orders of his boss, Dr. T. Page...

M. Bara described in detail on the Internet his doubts about the published photographs of the Moon taken by the Clementine spacecraft. Comparing photographs of the Plato crater floor, he wrote: “In my opinion, this difference (between the photos) leads to two conclusions. Either the “official” image was changed before publication, or there is some kind of “veil” over Plato, hiding the plain.”

American T. James tried to solve the problem head-on, asking NASA management direct questions:

"1. Did or does anyone at NASA have the authority to censor and classify documents, images and/or data according to internal regulations?

2. Are documents, images and/or data obtained by NASA by any means subject to censorship and classification (pursuant to applicable internal regulations) for any contractor, agent or other government agency not necessarily (directly or indirectly) associated with NASA?

3. Have documents, images and/or data obtained by NASA ever been classified in any way?”

The results of the experiment are quite interesting. It turned out that at that time there were two people in NASA management authorized to review and classify space information - D. Goldin and M. Borey. James asked NASA Security Director M. Boreas, focusing on "any images of planets that are not related to Earth." This was the answer:

“Yes, these are very good questions. But, I can't answer them by email. Please contact the Freedom of Information Act Office in Washington..."

In fact, the author of the request was sent to the American government to formalize the request with all its bureaucratic red tape and unclear outcome. Apparently, NASA has reasons for hiding some information about the Moon.

And in the space companies of the USSR, the secrecy regime was, without any doubt, much stricter. Instead of retouching and notes, apparently, they simply blocked free access to all the results of flights to the Moon. But the Moon itself cannot be hidden in a safe. And from time to time, astronomers, both amateurs and professionals, become eyewitnesses of mysterious phenomena on the night star. The President of the American Lunar Society, D. Darling, in one of his letters to the author of the book, remarked on this matter:

“I have to agree that some lunar short-term phenomena observed over centuries could be the effects of an alien presence on the Moon. This is a difficult topic to research in the US and is seen as taboo.”

Observers noticed mysterious moving objects on the Earth's satellite long before the start of the "saucer" boom in 1947. Perhaps the first such message dates back to 1715, when the famous astronomers E. Halley and J.E. de Louville, during a solar eclipse in London, saw “some flashes or instant vibrations of light rays, as if someone was setting fire to the powder tracks with which mines are exploded...

These flashes of light were very short-lived and appeared in one place or another, but always from the direction of the shadow.” Since that time, such prominent astronomers as S. Messier, I. Schröter, W. Brooks, V. Szafarzhik, W. Pickering and I. Klassen have reported on the movement on the Moon. The set of hypotheses about the nature of unusual phenomena was quite wide - from terrestrial meteors to lunar lightning.

But in the scientific community of the first half of the 20th century, the prevailing opinion was that the Moon is dead not only in the biological, but also in the geological sense. Selenologists were skeptical about all reports of changes on the surface of the satellite. And yet in 1941–1946. four observers from America noted a dozen “lunar meteors,” although the Moon, as we now know, does not have a dense enough permanent atmosphere for meteor phenomena to occur.

Noticeable interest in the problem reappeared in the 1950s in the wake of interest in UFOs. A number of books appeared, the authors of which published summaries of reports about “unidentified flying objects on the Moon,” which later became a canonical part of ufological folklore. Unfortunately, this folklore is more reminiscent of Scheherazade’s fairy tales than science - after numerous retellings, real events were sometimes distorted beyond recognition, turning into real legends.

In the 60s of the last century, specialists finally became interested in moving objects on the Moon. Some similar phenomena were included in catalogs of short-term lunar phenomena, in particular in the NASA catalogs (1968, 1978). Six photographs have been published in the astronomical literature documenting motion on the Moon. However, unfortunately, the matter did not go further than mentions and descriptions of individual cases.

Secrets of the Moon – the lunar circus lights up

Astronomers call gigantic, half-flooded lunar craters half-flooded with solidified lava circuses. It was there, in the rings of high mountains, that they were able to notice mysterious lights, similar to the play of unknown guest performers.

In honor of the great philosopher, Plato named one of the most beautiful lunar circuses - a round plain about a hundred kilometers across, surrounded by a ring of mountains as high as the Himalayas. Almost half a century ago, researcher D. Leslie (England) wrote:

“It seems that the Moon, which was considered a dead and uninhabited planet, is being used by space travelers as a convenient observatory or resting place... I have discovered that at times there is actually significant activity on its surface. Not the "dim glow of faint volcanic activity" observed by Patrick Moore, but energetic, moving, sparkling lights and patterns, many of which could be seen in the vicinity of Plato Crater, which appears to be something of a lunar headquarters."

As a rule, only 8% of anomalous lunar phenomena occurred in this circus, but sometimes some kind of “fuss” begins there and then Plato’s share jumps 2–4 times. According to NASA, the years 1869–1877 were particularly turbulent. and 1895–1927

Perhaps the greatest mystery of Plato is the “spotlight” that was occasionally observed in him, which shone with an even light for tens of minutes. It was first noticed by the young Italian astronomer Francesco Bianchini on December 10, 1685. During the eclipse of the Moon, a mysterious strip of red light stretched across Plato, as if someone was struggling with the unexpected darkness. Only 40 years later F. Bianchini was again lucky to see this phenomenon.

1751 - a strip of yellow light at the bottom of Plato, immersed in the darkness of the night, was simultaneously seen by three people, including the famous astronomer from Scotland J. Short. The selenographer T. Alger wrote about the mysterious strip of light in 1871, as well as astronomers L. Brenner and F. I. G. Fauth in 1895. Already in the 20th century, the same phenomenon was reported no less than 7 times.

In addition to the ray-like stripe, observers sometimes described a temporary bright point of light. So on January 11, 1788, several eyewitnesses in the German city of Mannheim noticed her on the unlit part of our satellite, exactly in the place where the Plato Circus is located. The same night fire was seen again in the same year 1788. It burned for about two days. A rather spectacular description of this kind of phenomenon was made on March 5, 1919 by the experienced Russian observer S. Selivanov:

...I could discern many details on the dark side of the Moon. They were all a fairly uniform lilac-gray-green color. But Circus Plato turned out to be intensely green. A little to the left of the center of its bottom, a point was visible, shining brightly with phosphorescent light, which seemed to illuminate the entire interior of the circus so that even the outlines of its inner shaft could be distinguished. During the entire observation period (from 7:20 a.m. to 7:35 a.m.), this glow remained unchanged. G. Tagarkov, who observed with me, described the phenomenon identically with me. I won’t attempt to explain the glow.

This mystery of the Moon, this anomalous phenomenon, has not been explained to this day. It is only clear that no cloud of gas ejected into vacuum from the depths of the night star, or lightning in a gas-dust mixture, is capable of producing a point glow that remains unchanged for 15 minutes! After all, artificial comets (gas clouds), specially thrown into space, dissipate and go out in a matter of minutes. In addition, in order for the point of light to “illuminate the entire interior of the circus,” it must be at an altitude of at least 700 meters above the surface of Plato’s almost flat bottom. One inevitably thinks that this is an artificial light source...

A. Arkhipov

Moon- the closest satellite of humanity in outer space and the only celestial body that we have visited. But despite its relative proximity to us and its apparent simplicity, our satellite continues to hide a lot, and some of them are worth learning about.

Optical illusion

During the full moon, our satellite emits 12.6 units of brightness, while the Sun emits 26.8. For some reason, the human eye “sees” the disk of the Moon much larger at the moment when it is close to the horizon. But in fact it is 1.5% smaller along with the Moon at its zenith. This is a kind of optical illusion, which we observe in the example of the Sun. And it is not the Earth’s atmosphere that refracts light and increases the diameter of the stars.

Moonquakes

The Moon has extremely low geological activity, but crustal movements occur there too. There are four types of moonquakes: the first three - deep moonquakes, vibrations from meteorite impacts and thermal moonquakes caused by solar activity - are relatively safe. And moonquakes of the fourth type can be up to 5.5 on the Richter scale - this is enough to make small objects begin to tremble. These tremors last for about ten minutes. Earthquakes on Earth are typically caused by the movement of tectonic plates, but on the Moon there are simply no tectonic plates, and we don't know what exactly causes moonquakes.

The moon is hollow inside

Above the “lunar site seas” they found areas in which the gravity of our satellite is changed. This fact, as well as testing the motion and specific gravity of the Moon, suggests that the Moon may be hollow inside. And after part of the Apollo 13 rocket separated and fell onto the surface of the satellite, the Moon “oscillated” for about three hours up to 40 kilometers deep, as if hollow! At the same time, according to the astronauts, it “ringed like a bell.”

Lunar anomalies

Some images taken by various satellites show very strange artificial structures, the size of which varies from very small ones, usually shaped like a parallelepiped, to obelisks less than 1.5 km in height.

Moon dust

One of the most amazing and at the same time most dangerous things on the Moon is lunar dust. Instead of dust, there is crushed regolith rock on the Moon. It is fine, like flour, but at the same time very rough. Thanks to its texture and low gravity, the site penetrates absolutely anywhere. NASA had numerous problems with lunar dust: it ripped astronauts' boots almost completely apart, penetrated ships and space suits, and caused "lunar hay fever" in astronauts if they inhaled it. Moon dust smells like burnt gunpowder, which is probably due to its meteorite origin. In the region of the lunar “oceans” its layer is 3 meters, and on the plateau it reaches 20.

Moon shadows

When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first walked on the Moon, they made an amazing discovery: the shadows on the Moon are much darker than the shadows on Earth due to the lack of an atmosphere. All lunar shadows are absolutely black. As soon as the astronauts stepped into the shadows, they could no longer see their own feet, despite the sun's disk burning brightly in the sky. Moon shadows became the bane of many Apollo missions. Some astronauts found it impossible to complete spacecraft maintenance tasks because they couldn't see what their hands were doing. Others thought that they had accidentally landed in a cave: this effect was created due to the shadows cast by the slopes.

Of course, the astronauts were able to adapt to this, but such a contrast between dark and light areas of the surface still remained a problem. The astronauts noticed that some shadows—namely, their own—had halos. They later learned that the eerie phenomenon was explained by the opposition effect, in which some dark shadow areas appear to have a bright halo, provided that the observer looks at the shadows from a certain angle.

Difficulties with low gravity

Although the gravity on the Moon is only one-sixth that of Earth, moving on its surface is difficult. Buzz Aldrin said that it would be extremely difficult to establish settlements on the Moon: the feet of astronauts in bulky spacesuits were buried in lunar dust almost 15 cm deep. Despite the low gravity, the inertia of a person on the Moon is high, so it is difficult to move quickly or change direction there. If the astronauts wanted to move faster, they had to jump like kangaroos, which was also a problem since the Moon is full of craters and other dangerous objects.

Solar eclipse thanks to the Moon

During a total solar eclipse, the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth, and the lunar disk exactly coincides with the solar one, covering it almost completely. This effect is due to an amazing coincidence: the diameter of the Sun is about 400 times greater than the diameter of the Moon, but the distance from us to the Sun is also about 400 times greater, so from the Earth both luminaries appear approximately the same. This ratio of sizes and distances is unique for all the planets of the Solar System and all their known satellites. Moreover, this coincidence happened precisely in our time, because the Moon is gradually moving away from the Earth, and after millions of years a total solar eclipse can no longer be seen.

Solar eclipse from the International Space Station:

A total solar eclipse was observed on November 14, 2013 in three Australian cities - Cairns, Port Douglas and Brisbane:

Next solar eclipses (2014-2017):

• October 23, 2014 21:45:39 Partial
• March 20, 2015 9:46:47 AM Full
• September 13, 2015 6:55:19 Partial
• March 9, 2016 1:58:19 Full
• 1 September 2016 9:08:02 Ring
• 26 February 2017 14:54:32 Ring
• 21 August 2017 18:26:40 Full

Moon eclipse

This is an eclipse that occurs when the Moon enters the cone of the shadow cast by the Earth. The Moon can be completely obscured, i.e. a total lunar eclipse with a blood-red moon effect, or the Moon can be partially obscured - a partial or penumbral eclipse.

A total lunar eclipse occurred on June 15, 2011. The Moon was completely immersed in the Earth's shadow for 100 minutes. This is the longest eclipse since July 2000:

Next lunar eclipses (2014-2017):

• October 8, 2014 10:55:44 Full (blood red moon)
• April 4, 2015 12:01:24 Full (blood red moon)
• September 28, 2015 2:48:17 Full (blood red moon)
• March 23, 2016 11:48:21 Penumbra
• 16 September 2016 18:55:27 Penumbra
• February 11, 2017 00:45:03 Penumbra
• 7 August 2017 18:21:38 Partial

Supermoon

A supermoon is the position of the Moon when it is slightly closer to the Earth in its orbit than usual. The effect of a close orbit is especially noticeable during the full moon. The Moon appears larger than usual, although the difference in distance from Earth differs by only a few percent. During a supermoon The moon looks 14% bigger and 30% brighter than on normal days. A supermoon typically does not have a noticeable effect on Earth, except for stronger tides.

Every month on the day of the new moon, the Earth, Moon and Sun line up, with the Moon taking its place in the middle. This astronomical phenomenon causes extensive tides. During these tides, the water mark is particularly high, and then the water subsides later that day. During supermoons, the Moon increases the tides, causing what are called perigee tides.

During a supermoon On August 10, the Moon will be at its closest distance to Earth. This is evening and night from Sunday to Monday. But even the day before, the Moon will already be magnificent. If you also take into account that in August the Earth passes through a meteor shower appearing from the direction of the constellation Perseus, and falling meteorites are most often observed, then you can sit all night admiring the starry sky with “falling stars” and a huge bright moon. Very romantic! Do not miss!

The following supermoon site:

• August 10, 2014
• September 9, 2014

Earth sunrise over the moon

It is known that the Moon always faces the Earth with one side, but for someone who is on the Moon, the Earth will not hang motionless in the sky. This is due to the fact that, firstly, the Moon’s orbit is not circular, but elliptical, and secondly, the Moon’s axis of rotation is inclined to the axis of the orbit around the Earth. Thanks to these small movements, which are collectively called libration, a total of about 60% of the lunar surface is visible to an observer on Earth. In turn, an observer located on the border of the lunar disk can see the sunrise and sunset of the Earth. Magnificent view of the Earth rising above the Moon:

Moonbows

There are also lunar rainbows that arise from sunlight reflected by the Moon. Since this light is significantly weaker than direct sunlight, to the human eye a lunar rainbow usually looks just white, but a camera with a long exposure can capture it in color. Moonbow at Victoria Falls:

The relationship between the phases of the moon, writing and lunar chronology

We call the emerging disk of the Moon a month. It grows from right to left and decreases in the same order. Therefore, after the new moon, when the Moon is completely invisible, a month appears, the horns of which point to the left. And after the full moon, when the Moon wanes, gradually turning back into a month, its horns are already directed to the right. Therefore, it is always easy to determine what phase the Moon is in. What we see The illuminated shape of the Moon always changes from right to left, also influenced the direction of writing in Arabic writing. In some countries, lunar chronology is adopted along with the usual solar Gregorian calendar. Thus, The year 2014 corresponds to 1435 according to the Islamic calendar and 2557 according to the Buddhist calendar. Thin crescent moon, nascent moon site behind the ancient Parthenon temple in Athens:

Here's some more interesting information about the Moon:

1. Few people know that there is a real monument to the fallen astronauts on the Moon. It is a small man in a spacesuit, measuring 8 cm, made of aluminum and installed in 1971. The figurine also includes a plaque with the names of the dead people. Among the other 14 cosmonauts, the name of Yuri Gagarin is mentioned. Eugene Shoemaker (founder of astrogeology) himself wanted to become an astronaut, but was unable to get the job due to minor health problems. This remained the biggest disappointment throughout his life, but Shoemaker nevertheless continued to dream that one day he would be able to visit the Moon himself. When he died, NASA fulfilled his greatest wish and sent his ashes to the Moon with the Lunar Prospector station in 1998. website His ashes remain there, scattered among the moon dust.

2. If Belka and Strelka were the first conquerors of space, then the conquerors of the Moon can be called Asian turtles with various bugs, plants and bacteria. They orbited the Earth's satellite for the first time.

3. According to space news, the Moon has such a feature as a sharp temperature drop from -100°C to +160°C, while on Earth the maximum and record difference was recorded once in 1916, Montana (USA ) – amounted to -49 to +7 degrees.

4. There is no atmosphere on the Moon, so there is a black starry sky there all day long. From it, regardless of the time of day, the Earth is always clearly visible.

5. Moon's gravity is 6 times less than Earth's. Based on this information and simple mathematical calculations, an ordinary person can easily lift the weight of a load equal to his own.

6. To help you navigate the site in the distance from the Earth to the Moon, we will give several examples. It will take about 20 days to fly by plane, and up to six months by car at a constant speed of 90-100 km/h.

The more people learn about the Moon, the more mysteries arise that challenge established scientific ideas about it.

UFO on the Moon:

With a diameter of about 3,476 kilometers, the Moon is a quarter the size of Earth, and its territory is the subject of many fascinating theories. Soil samples obtained during lunar expeditions revealed the content of brass, mica, uranium 236 and neptunium 237, giving rise to a splendor of fascinating mysteries.

In the eyes of numerous hypotheses, the Moon as an astronomical object appears to be one of the most mysterious bodies in the system. Our satellite is rightfully considered a strange astronomical body due to numerous physical properties that scientists are not yet able to explain.

The uniqueness of the Moon also lies in the fact that it is incomparable with any other satellites discovered near neighboring planets to date. In fact, our moon is so unique that Robert Jastrow (an American astronomer and planetary physicist and former leading NASA scientist) called the Moon the “Rosetta Stone of the Planets.” — By the way, the astronomer was skeptical about the idea of ​​UFOs due to the lack of physical evidence supporting this hypothesis.

For a better idea of ​​the uniqueness (or strangeness) of the Earth's satellite, just hear a quote from Robin Brett, a NASA scientist who once heartily declared: It seems easier to explain the non-existence of the Moon than its existence!

Lunar anomalies.

Who won't let us go to the moon? Why was the US lunar program, in which they invested an astronomical sum, curtailed? Why did they suddenly start talking about the achievements of American astronauts from different points of view?

There is no clear answer to these questions. Among numerous versions and arguments, supporters point out that the Moon is an inhabited celestial body!

In fact, astronomers have repeatedly observed mysterious objects on the lunar disk, the origin of which cannot be explained. Strange flights of celestial bodies, whose motion trajectories do not allow them to be confidently classified as space debris. It is difficult to classify them as wandering cosmic bodies, since they do not have a clearly directed trajectory of motion. Many unidentified individuals behave as if they are under the control of a pilot.

In other words, according to ufologists, this is nothing more than from distant worlds and galaxies, and our satellite is a special base created for the maintenance of space technology.

Consequently, if you believe in the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence and analyze a number of facts, then it is quite likely that the “Lunar Program” was curtailed for more fundamental and serious reasons than they told the whole society.

It is not difficult to guess that if humanity has not yet encountered representatives of other, more developed civilizations, then the proposed base on the Moon is simply hidden from human sight. However, these are just guesses and another version, because... The scientific community does not provide confirmation of the existence of intelligent beings in our galaxy.

Why is the Moon a strange object?

The moon rotates in a stunning orbit not found anywhere else in the solar system. Not a single satellite of the visible planets behaves in an appropriate manner. This is a unique phenomenon for the Moon, because all other satellites orbit the equator of their planets. The Moon rotates in Earth's orbit according to its own rules, denying the accepted laws of the system.

Surprisingly, the Moon maintains a precisely specified altitude, course and speed, which allows the satellite to properly function (interact) with our planet. Some researchers are confident that if the Moon is perceived as an object of natural origin (according to generally accepted teaching), then it cannot be located at all in the place where we see it.

The Moon contains copper, mica, uranium 236 and neptunium 237 - these products have never been found produced by natural conditions. The incredible lies in the following: uranium 236 is a radioactive product of nuclear waste contained in spent and regenerated uranium.

The discovery of neptunium 237, a radioactive element in nuclear reactors and a participant in the production of plutonium, is extremely intriguing. Such facts speak about the activity of intelligent beings, completely excluding the natural factor, the researchers are sure.

The mysterious lunar characteristics led Mikhail Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov of the USSR Academy of Sciences to write a paper about the satellite in the 1970s entitled “Is the Moon the Creation of an Alien Intelligence?” Almost half a century has passed since its publication, but despite research expeditions to the Moon, we are still no closer to understanding the mystery of the origin of the Earth’s satellite.

In addition, Harold Urey, Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, adds: I am terribly surprised by the lunar samples with titanium delivered by astronauts. In fact, the soil samples are unimaginably mind-blowing because scientists could not really explain the presence of finds on the satellite.

The Hollow Moon Theory.

Could the Moon be an artificial structure? Research shows that the Moon is most likely a hollow object, ufologists say. Developing the hypothesis, researchers suggest the incredible: the Moon represents a tool for terraforming the living conditions of planet Earth. An ancient project to engineer the Earth was launched by a powerful alien civilization.

Under a protective layer of regolith, the Moon has a hard shell made of high-strength materials such as titanium, for example. Uranium, mica, neptunium, copper, and finally, these are definitely products that no one expected to find on the Moon. Meanwhile, this is just construction debris from the creation of a space station, where radioactive elements are “waste” from its working activities. Speaking of garbage, there are now more than 180,000 kg of garbage on the Moon that people have left there.

In 1969, NASA crash-landed a probe onto the lunar surface to determine the satellite's response to impact. The effect they saw amazed the experimenters themselves: a powerful moonquake engulfed the entire satellite! Scientists were stunned when the moon rang like a bell for more than an hour. Ken Johnson, head of NASA's information department then noted: The moon not only rang like a bell, but was all “dangling”...

A small experiment with big results provoked the formation of countless hypotheses about the true origin of the Moon. In one version, the Moon does not have an internal natural core, which is partially confirmed by the average density of the Moon of 3.34 g/cm3, indicating a light body. For example, the average density of the Earth is 5.5 g/cm3.

The basic idea of ​​the origin of the Moon is based on a fantastic story: supposedly the Earth’s satellite was brought here by aliens who were not just conducting exploration work in space, but also preparing the planets for biological life.

The theory resonates with things like ancient records of life before the moon people, a period of time when the Earth had no satellite. This also includes the version with the Ecumenical Flood. They say that the Moon, which suddenly appeared unexpectedly, caused a gigantic tidal wave, which is why the Earth could not calm down for almost two months, and in general, this seems to be true.

During the flyby of the Moon by spacecraft, it was found that its gravitational field is very uneven. Scientists P. Müller and V. Sjögren discovered pronounced positive gravity anomalies over large lunar seas. They tried to connect such a strange phenomenon with the existence of excess masses in these seas, which they called mascons (“mask” in short - concentration of mass).

The term "mascons" is difficult to find in the dictionary. Just a few decades ago there was no such concept at all. So, what are mascons?

Hypothesis one. Mascons are iron-nickel bodies that flew from space and “buried” into the lunar soil. Müller and Sjogren suggested that the bodies that formed these seas had an iron-nickel composition. But the hypothesis is very artificial, since the possibility of the formation of large iron-nickel satellites in a near-Earth swarm is extremely unlikely.

Hypothesis two. Mascones are strata of sedimentary rocks on the site of ancient seas. The idea that mascons consist of components of fallen bodies is rejected by J. Gilvary (USA). He believes that the masses of the bodies that formed the seas are an order of magnitude smaller than the masses of the Mascons. Gilvary is trying to explain the properties of mascons, starting from his long-standing idea that the seas on the Moon were once real water formations, similar to those on Earth.

In the early era of the Moon's existence, a large amount of volatile substances and water was released from its depths. Water covered the low parts of the lunar surface with a two-kilometer layer. By this time, giant craters already existed. The bottom of the craters was raised by the pressure of the underlying layers, and did not sag further, since, according to Gilvary, the initially heated Moon managed to cool down, restoring its strength.

“As you can now see, there are a large number of questions regarding the Moon, and the presence of water on the satellite in the past is not the most intriguing of them. Another thing is more interesting - can we call the Moon “our natural satellite of the Earth”?

We have already said that all the information about celestial bodies at the disposal of astronomers was obtained at a distance, by indirect methods. The reliability of this information is confirmed by the reliability of the method and their repeated testing under terrestrial conditions. However, direct verification of astronomical data would be of great fundamental importance.

And now the day for such a test has come.

On January 31, 1966, the Soviet Union launched the Lupa 9 automatic station into orbit towards the Moon, and on February 3 at 21:45:30 Moscow time, it smoothly descended onto the lunar surface in an area that astronomers call the Ocean of Storms.

Within a few minutes after landing, the station’s transmitter began to work, sending signals to Earth that the equipment and instruments were ready. The first radio broadcast Earth - Moon! A few hours later, at 4:50 a.m. on February 4, on command from the Earth, the first television session in the history of science from the Moon took place. The automatic station began surveying the lunar landscape and transmitting images to Earth.

What astronomers have long dreamed of has come true. Scientists have at their disposal photographs of the lunar landscape, taken using equipment that was located directly on the lunar surface. What did these photographs tell us?

It is remarkable that the lunar landscape on television images transmitted by the Luna 9 station, and somewhat later by another Soviet station Luna 13, appeared before us exactly as we expected to see it based on recent optical and radio astronomical observations. An uneven surface, pitted with depressions and craters with a diameter of one to several meters, sharp outlines of distant rocks and above all this a completely black sky due to the lack of atmosphere.

It is especially important that the photographs obtained fully confirmed the results of radio observations carried out in recent years, and primarily the conclusions regarding the structure and structure of the lunar soil.

From the analysis of photographs, first of all, it is clear that during landing the station did not sink into the ground. This already suggests that the surface layer on the Moon is quite hard. There are no traces of dust on the ground at the landing sites of these stations. In addition, if there were dust particles near the station, they, attracted by the electrostatic charge acquired by the station during the flight, would have to cover its nodes. Dust would also settle on the lens of the photo-television installation, which would inevitably affect the image quality. However, the image clarity is very high.

The resolution of the equipment of the Soviet Luna 9 station, with the help of which the review and photography was carried out, is such that in the foreground one can distinguish details spaced only 1-2 mm from each other. A person with good eyesight sees approximately the same details under his feet. This made it possible to discover that the surface layer on the Moon is indeed finely porous, with a spongy structure. In particular, the results of radar observations of the Moon were confirmed, according to which the unevenness of the microrelief of the lunar surface should be less than 10 cm.

The uniformity of the microstructure of the lunar soil is noteworthy. This fact indicates that the surface of our natural satellite was influenced by some factors that acted everywhere, and that these factors were constancy and regularity. Most likely, the factors in question were of a cosmic nature.

Apparently, the process of formation of the modern surface layer of the Moon occurred approximately as follows. First, lava poured onto the lunar surface, and only then, as a result of external influences, it turned into the porous substance that covers our natural satellite today.

Prof. is probably right. N. N. Sytinskaya, linking porosity with micrometeorites. However, it is also possible that volcanic phenomena could play a certain role in the formation of porosity, at least in certain areas of the lunar surface. For example, it is known that during volcanic eruptions on Earth, molten rocks, solidifying under conditions of rapid gas release, form something like hardened foam.

Of course, one cannot ignore that on the Moon volcanic processes occur under slightly different physical conditions than on Earth: in a vacuum and with a much weaker gravity. A detailed analysis of all these phenomena is yet to come.

According to the famous Soviet scientist prof. A.I. Lebedinsky, the material of the lunar surface in the landing area of ​​the Soviet station “Luna 9” was subjected to repeated processing. He was crushed under the blows

meteorites, then the resulting particles stuck together in a vacuum, turning into solid rock, which in turn cracked from sudden temperature fluctuations, was again subjected to meteorite impacts, stuck together, cracked, and so on many, many times.

Observations carried out using the Luna 13 station, in addition, showed that the mechanical properties of the surface layer of lunar soil are close to the properties of medium-density terrestrial soil. Using equipment installed at the Luna 13 station, direct measurements of the density of lunar rocks were carried out for the first time. It turned out that this density does not exceed one gram per cubic centimeter. This is significantly lower than the density of ordinary terrestrial soils, but close to the density of porous and granular rocks.

In the photographs transmitted by Luna 13, you can see that the density meter, when turning, ironed out a flat area in the ground. This leads to the conclusion that the topmost layer of lunar soil has very little strength.

Interesting data on the mechanical properties of lunar soil were also obtained by the American Surveyor 1 and Surveyor 3 spacecraft.

The results of studying the structure of the lunar surface using photographs transmitted by Soviet automatic stations are in good agreement with the latest radio observation data of V. S. Troitsky. They suggest that the lunar soil is not a hard sponge like pumice, as previously thought, but rather a loosely bonded granular structure, similar to wet sand,

It is also interesting that the Luna 9 station recorded radiation emanating from the lunar surface and, apparently, associated with nuclear reactions that occur in it under the influence of cosmic rays. This confirms the assumption that the lunar soil is significantly affected by cosmic rays.

Another assumption of astronomers was also justified.

We see any object only because it reflects light rays. Why, then, do we see a man standing in tons? Yes, because on Earth light reaches even the shadow; it is sunlight scattered by the atmosphere. There is no atmosphere on the Moon, and therefore the shadows there should be much darker.

Indeed, in one of the images taken by the Luna 9 station, a small stone is visible, located right in the foreground. The photographed landscape was illuminated by the rays of the Sun, which during the first session was at an altitude of about 7° above the horizon. Such a low position of the Sun for the period of photographing was foreseen in advance, because with side lighting, all surface irregularities become more prominent. The stone in question casts a long shadow, in the area of ​​which surface details are almost completely indistinguishable.

Due to the fact that the Moon's radius is almost four times smaller than the Earth's, the lunar surface has a much greater curvature than the surface of our own planet. Due to this, the horizon range on the Moon should be significantly less than on Earth, and indeed, the horizon range in the photograph is about 1.5-2 km.

According to astronomical data, the Luna 9 landing site is a relatively flat area of ​​the Moon. Photographs of two adjacent sections of the lunar surface show that almost to the horizon the terrain is quite smooth and only hills rise in the distance.

The photographs also brought something unexpected. These are individual small and larger stones scattered across the lunar surface. Most likely, these are volcanic rocks that were once erupted from the lunar interior, or fragments thrown out during the formation of meteorite craters. It is also possible that these are initial inclusions in the surface layer, “floating” to the surface during the destruction of the rock.

It is unlikely that these were meteorites. The fact is that there are no traces of impact on the ground under the stones. This means they had to gently land on the moon. A similar case is, in principle, possible if a meteorite flies tangentially to the lunar surface and catches up with the Moon in its orbital movement. Then its speed can be close to the speeds of points on the lunar surface, and the landing can occur without a strong impact. But such a landing on the moon is a rather rare case, and therefore it is difficult to assume that all the fireplaces visible in the photograph have such an original origin.

Very important data on the chemical composition of the lunar soil were obtained using so-called gamma spectrometers installed on board Soviet artificial lunar satellites. These instruments record natural radioactive radiation from lunar rocks. Analysis of the data obtained showed that the lunar surface contains rocks similar in composition to terrestrial basalts. This conclusion was subsequently confirmed by the American Surveyor 5 spacecraft, which carried out a chemical analysis of the lunar soil at one of the points of the Sea of ​​​​Tranquility. It turned out that in this area the surface of the Moon is covered with a mineral of volcanic origin, similar in composition to basalts. This substance contains 53-63% oxygen, 15-21% silicon, 4-8% aluminum, about 3% cobalt and nickel with an admixture of sulfur, as well as magnesium, carbon, sodium and some other elements. In addition, a special magnet attracted iron particles.

Why did the leading space powers of the USSR and the USA suddenly lose interest in the Moon? Either they made grandiose plans for its development, even colonization, or for decades there was silence.

This happens when everything is known and there is no point in continuing the study, or when such unexpected results are obtained that the work goes into the secrecy phase. The first option is doubtful: there are no less questions related to the Moon even now. But here's the second one...

Signs of a lunar mind?

In 1977, a book by a certain J. Leonard was published in the UK entitled “There is Someone Else on Our Moon” and with the subtitle “Amazing Facts of Intelligent Life on the Moon Discovered.”

An excavator the size of a city on the surface of the moon! This is just one of the author's stunning revelations. According to him, only a very narrow circle of specialists knew about the powerful mechanical devices that American astronauts saw working in the craters of the Moon, about bridges, viaducts, dome-shaped structures and other structures on the lunar surface.

Thirty-five photographs (each with a NASA code number), dozens of detailed drawings made, according to the author, from high-quality large-format photographs, 230 pages of text listing facts and documents, statements from NASA experts and an extensive bibliography lead to a stunning conclusion: NASA and many scientists world-famous people have long known that signs of intelligent life have been discovered on the Moon!

Disinformation? But then the reaction to this publication is amazing. No denials
no comments, no discussion of any kind. Are the pictures fake? But the author in the appendix gives the address where you can get copies of them.

Few people knew about Leonard's book. Its circulation, according to competent people, immediately disappeared from store shelves. The second edition was published in 1978 - the same result. Only copies that were accidentally exported abroad, including to the USSR, remained. But it seems that the Moor still did his job. In 1981, a book (“Alien Bases on the Moon,” by Fred Steckling) was published in the United States, full of facts and NASA photographs depicting UFOs and other phenomena on the Moon and in its environs. In 1992, a book with similar content was published in Japan.

Mysterious light

"Wow!!! - Astronaut Harrison Schmitt, pilot of the Apollo 17 lunar module (December 7-19, 1972) could not contain his surprise already on the first revolution around the Moon. “I just saw a flash on the lunar surface!.. A bright small flash on the northern edge of the Grimaldi crater... where there was only a narrow strip of light.” (It was in this place that Apollo 16 pilot Ken Mattingly saw a flash of bright light).
The next day it was the turn of another pilot, Ronald Evans, to be surprised: “I would never have believed it!” I am right above the edge of the Eastern Sea. I just saw a bright flash with my own eyes! Right at the end of the furrow..."

One of the serious authorities in the field of the physical and geological nature of the Moon, Dr. Farouk El-Baz, a consultant and assistant to many American astronauts, commented on these observations: “There is no doubt that this is something grandiose: these are not comets, and this is NOT of NATURAL origin !

Strange light phenomena on the lunar disk have been noticed for a long time. Flashes, luminous stripes, moving spots of light were described in detail by researchers of previous centuries. More than 900 recorded cases date back to the 16th century alone.

White sparkling dots arranged in an arc, tiny dots and streaks of light are especially often observed in the Sea of ​​Crises. Sometimes these are tiny dots and stripes of light, united into some kind of figure, sometimes periodically flashing light, similar to intelligent signals.

The attention of astronomers has long been attracted by a strange light in the craters of Aristarchus and Plato. Bright red flashes in the area of ​​the Aristarchus crater sometimes cover areas of several kilometers and are more often observed above dome-shaped structures. Moving objects are observed in the Sea of ​​Tranquility. In 1964, light or dark spots were seen there at least four times, spreading over tens and even hundreds of kilometers in a few hours.

On September 11, 1967, for 8-9 seconds, Canadian researchers observed a dark rectangular spot with purple edges moving from west to east over the Sea of ​​Tranquility. It was clearly visible until it entered the night area.

After 13 minutes, a flash of yellow light was recorded along the path of the spot near the Sabine crater. And, apparently, it was no coincidence that a year and a half later, Apollo landed in this area! 1". The study of lunar soil at the landing site surprised experts. The soil was melted by a light source 100 times brighter than the Sun. Experts believe that the source of radiation was at a low altitude above the Moon. But these are not the engines of the Apollo lander.

Logic dictates that the vast majority of lunar phenomena simply remain outside our field of vision. After all, there is also the other side of the Moon.

Something lands, something flies

In the summer of 1955, V. Yaremenko from Odessa looked at “countless lunar craters, mountains and seas” through a homemade telescope. “Above the disk, parallel to its edge, at a distance of approximately 0.2 lunar radius, a luminous body flew, similar to a 3rd magnitude star under normal observation,” he recalls. - Having flown a third of the circle (it took 4-5 seconds), the body descended along a steep trajectory onto the lunar surface. It was quite large and... manageable! And artificial satellites did not yet exist in those years...”

Here are the observations of V. Luchko from Lvov (March 31, 1983): “About 2 hours 30 minutes. on the clear, almost full disk of the Moon... a rather large dark body was noticed, quickly and smoothly passing along a slightly curved path through the northwestern part of the disk in the direction from west to east. His journey took no more than a second. After a short period of time, exactly the same (or the same) body again crossed the Moon at the same speed and in the same direction...” That same night, Luchko managed to notice six appearances of the same bodies (or the same one). “In all cases, it was a relatively large, dark, even black body of irregular shape, perfectly visible against the background of the shining lunar disk.”

Our television has repeatedly played a video recording of a shadow moving across the surface of the Moon, which was made by a Japanese amateur astronomer. If this is not a hoax, then the size of the shadow (about 20 km in diameter) and the enormous speed of movement (about 400 km in 2 seconds) suggest a high technical level of the object that left it.

On March 15, 1992, astronomer E. Arsyukhin observed a rapid zigzag flight over the Moon of a black square body about 5 km in size. During the observation period, the object flew about 500 km at the same speed as the “Japanese” one - 200 km/s.

Astronautics gave a new impetus to the study of lunar mysteries. Photographs of the Moon taken from spacecraft, and information obtained during flights and landings on the Moon, forced NASA to seriously study the Earth's satellite. A special program was created to study LTP (“random phenomena on the Moon”, Russian abbreviation - LF, lunar phenomena). Experienced public observers were involved in the program. The results of the research are not known to the general public.

Only hypotheses

Examining photographs from the book by J. Leonard, researcher at the Association for Engineering Dowsing O.A. Isaeva identified zones with an increased energy background on the surface of the Moon and came close to determining the chemical composition of the sources of anomalous radiation. There is reason to believe that these objects contain technetium. This radioactive element, promising for nuclear energy, was obtained artificially on Earth only in 1937; it does not occur in its natural form in nature.

Various theories and hypotheses have been used to explain light LFs. They tried to explain them by flashes in the eyes of astronauts, which occur when cosmic particles hit the brain or eyeball. However, light phenomena are also observed by terrestrial researchers who are not subject to such cosmic bombardment. In addition, flares from cosmic particles are described as instantaneous, and even many hours of glow or periodic flickering in the same place have been observed on the Moon.

They try to explain flares on the Moon by meteorite impacts on rocks and rocks. However, this can only explain occasional short-term and one-time effects. M. Jessup, a mathematician and astronomer who seriously substantiated the connection between UFOs and the Moon, noted that in both the 18th and 19th centuries on the Moon during
spots of light were observed for hours or longer. The moon sparkled, sparkled, flared. And the probability of two meteorites hitting the same place in a relatively short period is negligible.

It has been suggested that at one time gases could have gotten under the uncooled lava flows on the Moon, but now they are released. But gases spontaneously released in nature, as a rule, do not have color, rhythm, shape or size. And all this is on the Moon. It was not possible to connect the glow of “gases” with the influence of ultraviolet rays from the Sun. Glows are also observed when the Sun does not illuminate the lunar surface.

It has been hypothesized that the Earth's magnetic tail accelerates solar particles that bombard the Moon, causing flares and luminescent excitations. But in this case, the glows and flashes would not have been tied for centuries to certain areas on the Moon (there are 90 of them!).

In 1992, American astronomer M. Kenton reported strange tremors on the Moon: “Their strength... reaches 12-14 points on the Richter scale. If this process continues for another six months, the Moon will burst and scatter into two halves... Two moons can cause people to experience a state of frustration, mental splitting, and group insanity. The reaction of the animal world, where instincts prevail, is unpredictable...”

Many scientists recognized that tremors on the Moon were something new in scientific observations, but did not believe that the Moon could break apart. And they were right.

Vitaly Pravdivtsev. Scientific director of the information and analytical center "Unknown"