Aliens on Moon: Will the search begin?

William Atkins
Saturday, 31 December 2011 05:27

Science - Space

Human explorers have ventured onto the Moon, but have aliens also made similar footsteps on the lunar surface? If the recommendation of two scientists is carried out, astronomers may make a search of the Moon for past evidence that aliens have visited our only natural satellite.

Dr. Paul Davies, the director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University, and Robert Wagner, an undergraduate student at Arizona State University majoring in Earth and Space Exploration, have written a paper called 'Searching for Alien Artifacts on the Moon."

Published online on November 23, 2011, in the journal Acta Astronautica, the two authors state that one fairly easy way to prove whether aliens exist would be to concentrate part of our investigations close to home.

They suggest astronomers should perform a detailed mapping of the Moon's surface, specifically looking for signs and artifacts of an alien presence that may have occurred in the distant past.

They state in their paper, 'Although there is only a tiny probability that alien technology would have left traces on the moon in the form of an artifact or surface modification of lunar features, this location has the virtue of being close, and of preserving traces for an immense duration.'

They specific the mission of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which mapped the Moon's surface to a resolution of 0.5 meter, is one such mission that could be used for this comprehensive search of an alien presence on the Moon.

Davies and Wagner state, 'Systematic scrutiny of the LRO photographic images is being routinely conducted anyway for planetary science purposes, and this program could readily be expanded and outsourced at little extra cost to accommodate SETI [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence] goals, after the fashion of the SETI@home and Galaxy Zoo projects."

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