Do you know what the white thing on the left of picture 5844 is?
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...-40-5844HR.jpg

Conspiracists say it's a UFO or a hoax evidence. Was that debunked before?

It seems a reflex from an astronaut suit pocket on the window. Does anyone know what it is?

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Looks like a relection to me.

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
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Me too. Or a smear or artifact on the scanned copy.

I have pictures of my son and I that have artifacts like that too.

It doesn't look ANYTHING like a UFO at all... The only reason they can claim as such is 'cuz the stinkin' moon is in the background.

If I take a picture at Disneyland can I say an artifact in it is Mickey Mouse?

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"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." -- Vaclav Havel

Quote:

We just don't know much.

Yet if not for those words, what would science be for? - KaiYeves

I propose an ATM corollary to Godwin's law: an ATM'er will inevitably compare himself to Copernicus (Or Galileo), when the going gets tough. - CodeSlinger

What causes them?

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Depends on the artifact and ...
uh...
What caused it

Ok like digital photo's can have digital artifacts caused by an error in the operation of the camera.
Or, When you transfer the picture from the camera onto your computer and then send it out, compress it, decompress it, these can cause artifacts as well.

Light can cause reflections, glares, flares, etc.
See CD here.
Warning!: Some naughty language.

Next, an old photograph (analog) can have artifacts from the chemical process of developing them, age, or exposure to light or other chemicals.


This particular one looks like a reflection on the glass in front of the astronaut to me. If you zoom in, it looks translucent. You can see the background through it.

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"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." -- Vaclav Havel

Quote:

We just don't know much.

Yet if not for those words, what would science be for? - KaiYeves

I propose an ATM corollary to Godwin's law: an ATM'er will inevitably compare himself to Copernicus (Or Galileo), when the going gets tough. - CodeSlinger

looks like a weather balloon to me. nothing to see here, move along...

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"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
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Again, conspiracists show their incredible ignorance of Apollo. I'm reasonably certain it's a reflection in the window of a sunlit portion of Neil Armstrong's suit.

If it's an alien spacecraft, the lower right section bears a very strong resemblance to a domed flap the astronauts had near their biceps, but that's not their only domed flap. They had epaulets and others. And other parts of the UFO look a lot like wrinkles in a spacesuit. But if the conspiracists give UFO its true and proper meaning of Unidentified Flying Object, then it truly is one. Currently an unidentified man-made white object flying at great speed around the moon. If we identify it, it will then be an IFO.

There are plenty of examples of this sort of thing throughout the Apollo record -- the sun catching something inside the spacecraft and reflecting it in a window -- particularly on the 16mm film clips when the astronauts change the camera's settings. From memory there's a reflection of Buzz's suit and his motion when he changed the aperture around the time Neil stepped onto the lunar surface. He discussed this with Capcom Bruce McCandless:
109:23:25 McCandless: Buzz, this is Houston. F/2 (and)...
109:23:28 Armstrong: Okay, I'm at the...(Listens)
109:23:29 McCandless: ...1/160th second for shadow photography on the sequence camera.
109:23:35 Aldrin: Okay.

And I think I recall a reflection of Mike Collins's suit and his motion when he's filming the Lunar Module.

When examining this sort of thing, the best trick is to first look up any captions to try and find out where and when the photo was taken, and for this one the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal says:

AS11-40-5844 -- Craters 216 and 217 from lunar orbit prior to the landing.

I don't know exactly where those craters are, but as the sun appears to be high and a little ahead of the lunar module (casting slight shadows toward the camera), this indicates somewhere around the 90 degrees east mark, perhaps above the lunar farside or Smyth's Sea. Depending on the orientation of the spacecraft, a chink of sunlight might be coming through the overhead docking window or through the front windows. They didn't always fly "bottom down" as we can see in the rendezvous film for Apollo 11. The LM ascent stage came up toward the CSM "top down," with the top facing the lunar surface.

The next thing is to look at the flight journal or lunar surface journal to find out what was happening when the photo was taken, but after a quick search I couldn't find more about this particular photo, other than that Neil ran off three exposures in orbit, preparing the camera for use on the lunar surface. This was the first shot, the next one was of the earth, and the third was of the Messier Craters and includes in the distance Mount Marilyn, above which Powered Descent Initiation (the de-orbit burn for the landing) occurred.


Novaderrik: A post like that might not be helpful to someone like Jairo who, as he says in his signature, doesn't speak English and may not understand your joke. Even I don't understand a lot of American culture, and had to ask what a twinkie is and what handwaving and woo-woo mean. From Jairo's comments and questions here and at ApolloHoax it seems to me that he does an excellent job of debunking the moonlanding hoax on bulletin boards in Brazil, so I believe he deserves all the constructive help we can give him.

Considering its likeness with the LM interior, and its unlikeness with everything else, I know the burden of proof is on the conspiracists. However, I think it's always quicker to show the exact counter example than waiting them to comprehend what a burden of proof is. Besides that, there is also my sheer curiosity.

And about Novaderrik's comment, I suppose it's a reference to Roswell. I think I was lucky because, while not much in American culture, I'm familiarized with conspiracy theories. Thanks for caring!

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Looks like swamp gas to me. Yep. Definitely swamp gas.

-Veeger

Two comments about the image - firstly, you can see the outline of craters through it. Secondly, it impinges on the silhouette outline of the window.

So, either it is a partially-transparent UFO trying to climb into the LM through the window, or it is an internal reflection. Given there are numerous other examples of unambiguous internal reflections in the Apollo record, I would be inclined to lean that way.

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Don't be too sure.. The Blob was translucent as well

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"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." -- Vaclav Havel

Quote:

We just don't know much.

Yet if not for those words, what would science be for? - KaiYeves

I propose an ATM corollary to Godwin's law: an ATM'er will inevitably compare himself to Copernicus (Or Galileo), when the going gets tough. - CodeSlinger

Yup, obviously a reflection on the glass.
On the lower right corner of it looks like a flap pocket with a snap closer.

The soft edges and transparency are a dead giveaway.

it's a reflection man !

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i'm sorry.. i was wrong.. it's definitely Venus being reflected off the side of the aforementioned weather balloon and then refracted thru some swamp gas..

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The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

And what, exactly, does a UFO look like?


Sorry Neverfly, I had to.

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Imagine everything you could possibly identify... it doesn't look like any of those.

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Looks like a reflection of part of the astronaut taking the picture to me.

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Heh, I had it coming

But that picture looks like a smeared image of a sleeve more than a flying craft-like object...

__________________
"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." -- Vaclav Havel

Quote:

We just don't know much.

Yet if not for those words, what would science be for? - KaiYeves

I propose an ATM corollary to Godwin's law: an ATM'er will inevitably compare himself to Copernicus (Or Galileo), when the going gets tough. - CodeSlinger

actually, it looks like every picture of an alien spacecraft, a least the ones taken using Philip J Fry's camera.

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"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

I can "tell", somehow, that it is a reflection of something in the interior of
the spacecraft. It is a reflection of something white. The shapes tell me
that it is something manufactured, rather than natural. Other than being
the right color, on the right side of the glass, and manufactured, it doesn't
particularly look like part of a spacesuit, or anything else I know of. Just
"something", and I'm not especially curious about what that "something" is.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

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Well, they just happen to be there, but the point of rockets is to explore them!"
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