Help! what is this?

I was reading through another thread which lead me to www.lpi.usra.edu website and after weeks of pizza pockets and beer I came across this picture

www.lpi.usra.edu...

off to the right you can spot an object, I was wondering if anybody has seen this image and if you can explain exactly what we are looking at?

This can't be Mars, Venus, Booster Rocket, or space debris! If it's a known solar body we would be able to see it from Earth. At the time this was taken there was not that much activity in space yet.
" As Far As We Know "

Download or if your photo program can do it zoom in

[edit on 17-5-2008 by SLAYER69]

[edit on 17-5-2008 by SLAYER69]

um... i think its a black and white photo and i've seen it before. i think the moon and far away is Earth. it looks small because its so far away. i didn't see that as one of your guesses ... im shocked.

reply to post by mrRviewer


I'm guessing he's referring to the object a little more to the right. It looks like debris of some kind.

The irregular shape, sort of "ragged" looking, could be just a tear in the film negative, IMO. I have seen a simular shaped anomoly in another Mars pic. (One by zorgon or MikeSingh??)

However, if these turned out to be two different photos, yet showing the same shaped object, then it would certainly challenge the idea that it was a problem with the negative.

reply to post by mrRviewer


I know how you feel I was shocked too. there is no mention of it or any follow up info anywhere I can find, it just seems odd that something was captured back then and nobody has said anything hmmm?

Interesting photo, I wonder if there is any way to figure out how big it is, I would have thought there was.

This is a photo from the first lunar orbiter mission, could this be what they released the orbiter from, its just I'd imagine they used a rocket to send the orbiter satellites up and too the moon, much like our earth orbiting satellites.

Just an idea, I don't know what it is really.

Similar shot from the same archive:



No strange object, doesn't prove much though.

[edit on 17-5-2008 by CuriosityStrikes]

reply to post by CuriosityStrikes


That could be true
all is possible
but one would think that if it was a booster or a stage of a rocket that would be near earth not way out there?

reply to post by CuriosityStrikes


thanks for posting that follow up photo it shows that it either was a tear in the film " Possible" or in the next pic the object moved on it's own
hmmmm?

Most likely a defect or artifact left by scanning the picture.

It doesnt have any properties that tell me its actually in the image itself.

Its probably just a Dorito crumb

I agree with NGC2736 --

It could easily be a tear in the print or on the negative.

IMAdamnALIEN
"Its probably just a Dorito crumb"

Good I was worried NASA found something

but those pics are not scans those are taking right from the craft

reply to post by SLAYER69

I would say the rocket would need to take the satellite too the moon, not just away from earth. Its still a fair trip after all.

reply to post by NGC2736


Do you have a link to those photos? I would love to take a look.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
...but those pics are not scans those are taking right from the craft

I'm not saying it definitely is a "crumb" or something, but a photo does not have to be scanned for there to be a foriegn object that shows up on the print that wasn't in the original...The same thing could happen if a "crumb" (or some other object) was on the negative when the photographic print was made.

It's irrelevant that this was not "scanned" -- it could still be something on the negative.

It's obvious that the neagative (or the print itself) is degraded as evidenced by the scratches and alternating dark and light bands. Again, I'm not saying it's definitely an artifact created by the print-making process, but I see no reason to rule this out, either.


[edit on 5/17/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

reply to post by mrRviewer


Mother ship?
is this why we have not been back to the moon?

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


The dark and light bands are a result of the way the film was scanned inside Lunar Orbiter.

The bad looks of the image may be because of a bad scanning inside Lunar Orbiter or more probably a bad copy of the original photos recreated on Earth.

Some of the photos were recreated as stripes and rejoined after making prints of these stripes, and some had bad joining, making it visible that the stripes did not match exactly as they should, like we can see in this photo.

In the bigger version (here) we can see that the other small white "things" look like the bigger one, and that, with the other signs of contamination of the photo, makes me think that this is a copy from the original copy and not a first version copy (the originals never left Lunar Orbiter).