An alleged alien spire detected by extraterrestrial enthusiasts is nothing of the sort, says NASA. It is simply a photo of a crater with a slight optical illusion, NASA scientist Dr. Noah Edward Petro insists.
Alien/UFO sightings website – UFO Sightings Daily – claimed the discovery of something mysterious on the Moon was a structure most likely created to accommodate a huge vessel so that it could dock safely without needing to land on the lunar surface.
MexicoGeek, a YouTube user, used Google Moon to detect the mysterious object, and posted a compilation of images in a video. (See video at bottom of this page)
Alien seekers say this is an alien spire (tower) sticking out of a large crater on the surface of the moon. A NASA expert says it is just a crater and that the bit sticking out is an optical illusion. (Image: MexicoGeek YouTube)
Not an alien spire! NASA says
However, Dr. Petro, who is a deputy project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) mission, said in an interview with the Huffington Post:
“That’s no spire! What is going on is that there is a small crater that formed on the rim, after the larger crater, Mersenius E. The sun is so low on the horizon such that the dimple in the crater wall casts a shadow on the eastern wall of the crater.”
“There is a dark cascade of material falling down into the larger crater, likely caused by material falling into the crater floor. No spire there, so yes, it’s an optical illusion.”
Alien enthusiasts not convinced
Scott Waring from UFO Sightings Daily, who was clearly not convinced by NASA’s crater explanation, said:
“The spire looks to be coming out of the center of a crater, but these are not craters, but many small white shiny structures.”
Social media and video websites across the world have been flooded with comments rejecting Dr. Petro’s crater explanation.
ufosightingsdaily.com writes: “This is the legendary spire on Earths moon. Its been seen before in Feb 1967 Orbiter 3 photos. This spire is 3.64 miles tall according to Google ruler, but is only an estimate. It may be off as much as half a mile more or less.” (Image: ufosightingsdaily)
There is a saying “If you want to find something bad in anyone or anything, bad enough, you will find it, whether its’ real or imaginary.” Is this also true of UFOs and aliens? Will those who are desperate to find them do so – even if there is nothing there?
Or is this just another case of pareidolia?
Mysterious sightings and pareidolia link
Ever since NASA sent its rovers to Mars, the number of pareidolia cases has rocketed.
Pareidolia is a phenomenon that makes us hear or see images or sounds of something or somebody that are not really there. Sometimes the affected individual is 100% sure it is real.
Pareidolia affects us all to a certain extent. Do you remember ever looking up at the sky and seeing cloud formations that remind you of perhaps a witch with a long nose, a bunny rabbit with big ears, or maybe a boat?
However, when those cloud formations remind us of things, we know that is what they are – just reminders. We know they are not real bunny rabbits or witches.
Most people will look at this cloud formation and say it reminds them of a person’s face. A pareidolia sufferer will think he or she is being observed or sent a message.
A pareidolia sufferer believes that the reminder is real. There have been reports of people running out of their kitchens in tears because they are convinced they saw the face of Jesus Christ on a slice of toast.
According to psychologists, the majority of UFO or alien sightings are due to pareidolia.
According to Collins English Dictionary, pareidolia is:
“The imagined perception of a pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist, as in considering the moon to have human features.”
During the last two months of 2015, the number of UFO sightings rose dramatically. Extraterrestrial seekers claim this is further proof that we being either visited, experimented on, invaded, observed, or manipulated by super-smart beings from other worlds.
Psychologists say it is because there was a flood of sci-fi movies that hit our screens at the end of 2015.
Internet full of ‘sightings’
Over the past few months, alien hunters have been flooding the Internet with pieces of alleged evidence of the ‘final proof’ of extraterrestrial civilizations.
In November, a picture of a rock on Mars sent by NASA’s Curiosity Rover had thousands of people convinced it was a carving of Nabu, the Babylonian and Assyrian god of wisdom and writing dating back to two thousand years BC. NASA said it had no plans to check it out because it knew it was ‘just an ordinary rock’.
A carving of the ancient Babylonian god Nabu or just an ordinary Mars rock? (Image: mars.nasa.gov)
In January 2015, another image sent by Curiosity Rover contained what looked like a camel and gorilla-like animal – this was on the surface of Mars! Compilations of Curiosity’s image were posted online with several explanations. It was either a massive Martian gorilla or bear next to a dwarf or juvenile camel.
Earlier this month, four UFOs were filmed in the sky above Moscow, Russia. Images of the bizarre objects were posted online. Somebody who calls himself Timor was quoted by a local newspaper as saying:
“There were four balls of light. A red one to the left, two white ones in the middle and a less bright one to the right. Sometimes the one on the right would disappear and come back. All together, they made the geometric shape of a rhombus.”
“I’ve been living in the district for two years, and have never seen anything like that before.”
Since the video footage was placed online, there has been much talk regarding its authenticity – with some viewers wondering whether it might be a big hoax. Well-known Russian UFO expert, Vadim Chernobrov, said he examined the footage carefully and was convinced it was not a fake.
Edgar Mitchell (far right) with the two other Apollo 14 crew members, Stuart A. Roosa (left) and Alan B. Shepard Jr. (centre). (Image: NASA)
Moonwalker Edgar Mitchell believed aliens were here
Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchel, the sixth human to walk on the Moon, was convinced there really were aliens at Roswell. He died aged 85 on 4th February, 2016.
Mitchell said he was sure that within all those thousands of UFO sightings recorded over the past seventy years, many were authentic.
In an interview with NBC in 1996, Mitchell said had talked with officials from three different countries who claimed they had personal encounters with aliens.
Mitchell once said:
“I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we’ve been visited on this planet, and the UFO phenomenon is real.”
In an interview with the Mirror Online, Mitchell said:
“White Sands (US Army missile range) was a testing ground for atomic weapons – and that’s what the extraterrestrials were interested in. They wanted to know about our military capabilities. My own experience talking to people has made it clear the ETs had been attempting to keep us from going to war and help create peace on Earth.”
If you want to read more stories about alleged UFO sightings and alien encounters, go to our Alien News – UFO News web page.
Video – Incredible giant spire on the Moon
This video (in Spanish) explains how a large spire structure sticks out of the crater. Even if you don’t speak the language, the video is fairly self-explanatory.