Extraterrestrial

NASA scientist debunks 'alien spire on the Moon' conspiracy theory

By T.K. Randall
April 22, 2024 ·  31 comments

Is this a structure, or something else ? Image Credit: Google Moon With its rock-strewn and cratered surface, the Moon, like Mars, is a place where pareidolia - the tendency for the human mind to make out meaningful shapes in abstract patterns - can reign supreme, generating all manner of peculiar sightings of everything from statues and buildings to animals and people.

This tendency to misinterpret mundane things as something significant was brought into focus recently when a YouTube user by the name of MexicoGeek discovered what he described as a "spire" on Google Moon - a service providing users with the ability to explore NASA imagery of the lunar surface.

At a glance, the alleged spire certainly looks like something, but looks can be deceiving.

According to MexicoGeek, the object would be around 3.5 miles in height and was built "to accommodate a very large vessel so that it could dock safely without landing."It wasn't long, however, before Noah Petro - a project scientist for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) mission, offered his two cents on what he thought the object could be.

The 'spire', he argues, is simply two craters - one large and one small - sitting next to each other.

The tall, thin 'structure' is actually the shadow of the smaller crater being cast into the larger one, coupled with debris that has likely fallen down the large crater's wall.

Whether this explanation will satisfy everyone, however, remains to be seen.

Source: Mail Online | Comments (31)

Tags: Moon