The moon after decades of manmade satellite photographs and manned lunar landings has proven to be anything but predictable or even explainable. Things that seem to contradict science have raised many an eyebrow. From the intentional crash of an Apollo lunar command module causing the moon’s interior to ring like a bell for hours to strange lights seen in some craters, to what appear to be artificial structures, our orbiting partner seems to have many more surprises waiting for us. Near the south pole of the moon comes a shock after the overflight of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the NASA spacecraft the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory. These two orbiting crafts have mapped the topography and the moon along with measurements of gravity fluctuation on the lunar surface.

Mystery impact?

The Aitken Basin is the scene of an incredibly large crater where an asteroid 1000 times more powerful than the strike that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs on earth millions of years ago, appears to have left its trace. Thought to have occurred 4 billion years ago after the moon had just solidified, a 60 kilometer long chunk of metal is embedded in the crater. Five times the size of the “Big Island” in Hawaii, Hilo, and this mysterious object lies hundreds of kilometers beneath the surface. It is actually creating a strong gravity field due to its weight and density. The initial reaction was that an artificial metallic object, perhaps a bunker type underground structure had been built there.

One possible explanation

The University of Texas Observatory has theorized that the metallic mass could be from the nickel and iron core of the asteroid that was left after its outer rocky surface was vaporized by the incredible collision. So far, the largest anomaly discovered in the lunar surface, this discovery proves that the moon has been a very effective orbiting shield against many asteroid strikes that might have had even more devastating effects upon human history. Still, there is no definitive proof of what this embedded object actually is. There is a plan to land an unmanned orbiting spacecraft that would arrive close to the metallic wonder and take a sample of the substance and then launch back into orbit, rendezvous with the propulsion module, and then return to earth. There is some speculation that the metallic substance could be radioactive so a manned mission could prove dangerous for astronauts.

More anomalies

As for more strangeness on the moon. Just as the “Face on Mars” there have been more tricks of light and shadow on the lunar surface that appear to be alien faces. There appears to be tracks like tire marks left on the powdery surface of the moon that could have been evidence of some kind of machinery moving over the lunar exterior. There even appears to be a large ship of some kind that lies in the shadow of a crater that vague photos have been taken of. It is said that during the Apollo Missions the astronauts used code words for alien artifacts or other evidence or used a scrambled frequency. Supposedly astronaut Walter Schirra, a veteran of the Mercury and Gemini space program when aboard the Apollo 7 looked down spotted a UFO on the moon and announced to NASA he had seen Santa Claus or Santa’s sleigh. I think it would be safe to say that we have more mysteries awaiting us on the moon.