An eerie video claiming to show an ‘alien’ figure walking on the moon went viral earlier this week.
Theories ranged from shadows cast by a nearby boulder to an ancient alien statue placed on the lunar surface.
Now Nasa has announced the figure is simply ‘dust, an eyelash [or] scratch on the negative’ of the film that took the image.
![What is this mystery figure on the moon? The image was spotted on the Google Moon site by web user Jasenko. Nasa announced the shape is simply 'dust, an eyelash [or] scratch on the negative' of the film that took the image](https://i0.wp.com/i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/13/article-2723717-2080099E00000578-399_634x318.jpg?fit=1200,800&quality=105&strip=all&contrast=5&brightness=10&zoom=1.1&ssl=1)
What is this mystery figure on the moon? The image was spotted on the Google Moon site by web user Jasenko. Nasa announced the shape is simply ‘dust, an eyelash [or] scratch on the negative’ of the film that took the image
The video, showing the images, was posted by YouTube user Wowforreel and it has already been viewed more than two million times in less than a month.
Noah Petro, a deputy project scientist for the Lunar Renaissance Orbiter (LROC) mission that is currently orbiting the moon, told Pix11 that the image was taken by either the Apollo 15 or 17 manned missions to the moon in 1971 and 1972 respectively.
He points out that a current LROC doesn’t show any lunar feature that could cause that pattern on the ground.
‘My best guess, is that something (dust, an eyelash, scratch on the negative) was on the film,’ Dr Petro told Pix11.
‘Remember, this was in the pre-digital days when all sorts of nasty things could happen to film.’
The popularity of the video can be explained by a psychological phenomenon called Pareidolia, which is the brain’s response to seeing faces and other significant objects in random stimulus.
Wowforreel said he started investigating the shadow, which can also be seen on Google Moon at 27°34’26.35″N 19°36’4.75″W, after receiving an online tip from another web user named Jasenko.
‘An irregularly shaped dark spot he noticed on Google Moon looks like it could be a cast shadow from a mᴀssive standing object, or figure,’ Wowforreeel told UFO Sighting Daily.
‘At first I thought maybe it was something drawn into the picture but after going to Google Moon, whatever it is or isn’t…uh, is there.’
‘An irregularly shaped dark spot he noticed on Google Moon looks like it could be a cast shadow from a mᴀssive standing object, or figure,’ Wowforreeel told UFO Sighting Daily
Tom Rose, a paranormal explainer, wrote in the Examiner the figure bears an uncanny resemblance to what the ancient statue, ‘The Colossus of Rhodes’, is thought to have looked like before it was felled a mᴀssive earthquake in 226 BC.
This isn’t the first time that Wowforreel has spotted strange objects after ploughing through Google’s moon series.
In January, the user highlighted controversial images which showed what some people believed could be a secret alien base or spaceship on the moon.
The triangular anomaly, spotted on Google’s map of the moon, had rows of seven light-like dots along its edge
‘Is it just a weird looking crater? or is it something else?,’ he asked.
‘It is really there, not faked and I have no clue what it is. I found nothing else like it in any of the other craters.’
According to website Tech and Gadget News: ‘The gigantic shape actually looks like the leading edge of an immense, triangular space ship, similar to, so far, super secret stealth aircraft technology, but is much larger than any airplane ever built on Earth.
‘The regularly spaced, circular promontory shapes which make up the seven points on the perfectly formed triangle wedge seem to be intelligently designed.
The two-sided, triangular feature on the lunar surface, was uncovered paranormal researcher WowForReeel. It can be found on the Google Moon viewer at coordinates 22042’38.46N and 142034’44.52E
‘To date, no other feature has ever been discovered which matches this shape on the moon, or any other planet observed by satellite or exploratory rover.
‘The anomaly is so huge, it’s possible it is some sort of moon base used as a facility for storing and launching alien UFO spacecraft.’
The same YouTube user also claims to have found a similar mystery structure on Earth, nestled under the ice in Antarctica.
‘It is also a triangular shape, measuring 125 by 90mtres.
‘It is unique in the area,’ he said.
Tricks of light in space pH๏τography have led to a number of excited reports about alien life in our solar system.
In November, paranormal researchers found what they believed to be evidence of a fossilised iguana on the surface of Mars.
The mysterious object was spotted by UFO Sightings Daily who uncovered the pH๏τograph in Nasa’s archives.
Earlier this week a ‘human face’ was pointed out by the German Aerospace Centre’s youth portal, DLR_next, on the Rosetta’s comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
‘This is not the first animal found on Mars, actually there have been about 10-15 to date,’ Mr Warring told news site agoracosmopolitan.com.
‘I even found a rock that moved four times in four pH๏τos…then vanished on the fifth.’
More recently, a ‘human face’ was pointed out by The German Aerospace Centre’s youth portal, DLR_next, on the Rosetta’s comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Seeing familiar objects in random objects is nothing new. The phenomenon is called Pareidolia is the psychological response to seeing faces and other significant and everyday items in random stimulus.
It is a form of apophenia, which is when people see patterns or connections in random, unconnected data.
Human eyes can spot faces within their environment and it helps them recognise friends in a crowd, work out how fast a car is travelling, and see patterns.
Scientists claim we also tend to use this ability to ‘enrich our imagination’ and recognise meaningful shapes, even when they’re not there.
In November, paranormal researchers found what they believed to be evidence of a fossilised iguana on the surface of Mars. The mysterious object (left) was first spotted by UFO Sightings Daily who uncovered the pH๏τograph in Nasa’s archives. They claim that it could be a fossilised iguana
