Infrared Moon Images

Originally posted by observe50
Hey Zorgon,

I know sometimes I get carried away and go off topic a wee bit.

John.......this is amazing. I did a study of my own and found some discoveries dangerously simliar to yours.

Originally posted by jbecker
John.......this is amazing. I did a study of my own and found some discoveries dangerously simliar to yours.





[edit on 5-9-2007 by jbecker]

Originally posted by jbecker
John.......this is amazing. I did a study of my own and found some discoveries dangerously simliar to yours.

(1) Observers have noted that the wall is roughly circular but has a somewhat polygonal shape.

(2) In 1911, Professor Robert W. Wood used ultraviolet photography to take images of the crater area. He discovered the plateau had an anomalous appearance in the ultraviolet, and an area to the north appeared to give indications of a sulfur deposit.[3] This colorful area is sometimes referred to as "Wood's Spot", an alternate name for the Aristarchus Plateau.

(3) The Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys was used to photograph the crater is visual and ultraviolet light. The crater was determined to have especially rich concentrations of ilmenite, a titanium oxide mineral that could potentially be used in the future by a lunar settlement for extracting oxygen.[4]

(4) The region of the Aristarchus plateau has been the site of many reported transient lunar phenomena. Such events include temporary obscurations and colorations of the surface, and catalogues of these show that more than one-third come from this locale.[5]

(5) In 1971 when Apollo 15 passed 110 kilometers above the Aristarchus plateau, a significant rise in alpha particles was detected. These particles are believed to be caused by the decay of radon-222, a radioactive gas with a half-life of only 3.8 days. The Lunar Prospector mission later confirmed Radon-222 emissions from this crater.[6] These observations could be explained by either the slow and visually imperceptible diffusion of gas to the surface, or by discrete explosive events.

REPORTS of curious flashes and fleeting clouds on the Moon may not be figments of wild imaginations, astronomers say. A new look at observations by the American satellite Clementine show that a small area on the Moon's surface darkened and reddened in April 1994. Why this happened remains a mystery.

For hundreds of years, people have reported seeing flashes, short-lived clouds and other brief changes on the Moon's surface. But astronomers have never been able to confirm the sightings. "The events were observed on many occasions, but most astronomers don't believe in them," says Bonnie Buratti of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. On 23 April 1994, around a hundred amateur astronomers reported seeing a possible darkening of the Moon, lasting 40 minutes, near the edge of the bright lunar crater Aristarchus. At the same time, the US Department of Defense's Clementine satellite was mapping the lunar surface.

One of the first real attempts to catalogue a large number of TLP sightings was made on behalf of NASA and published in a report which gave details of 579 mysterious lunar events dating from 26 November 1540 (pre-telescopic) to 19 October 1967 [4]. The catalogue appeared just a year before Neil Armstrong planted his size 11 boot in the Sea of Tranquillity; strange that such an important and well-funded Moon-landing programme chose to arm itself with some basic historical TLP data only at the very last minute.

NASA's belated enquiries represented a grudging acknowledgement that the Moon might not actually be the dead world it so convincingly advertises itself to be for most of the time. It was in NASA's interest, however, to down-play the idea of an active Moon. Known factors in lunar exploration were hazardous enough to plan for and contend with, without having to admit that lurking somewhere beneath the Moon's surface there might be some unknown, unpredictable and uncontrollable threat to their prospective Apollo lunar astronauts which could jeopardize the $25 billion programme.

Originally posted by johnlear
Originally posted by jbecker

John.......this is amazing. I did a study of my own and found some discoveries dangerously simliar to yours.

I'm sure it is jbecker, unfortunately as I have been discussing in another thread I am red green color blind. Whatever it is you have here would you mind very much posting it in yellow or blue. Those would be colors I could see. Thanks. And I'll be waiting.

(1) Observers have noted that the wall is roughly circular but has a somewhat polygonal shape.

5) In 1971 when Apollo 15 passed 110 kilometers above the Aristarchus plateau, a significant rise in alpha particles was detected. These particles are believed to be caused by the decay of radon-222, a radioactive gas with a half-life of only 3.8 days. The Lunar Prospector mission later confirmed Radon-222 emissions from this crater.[6] These observations could be explained by either the slow and visually imperceptible diffusion of gas to the surface, or by discrete explosive events.