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Netizens Should Search Moon Pix For Aliens
Prof Paul Davies and Robert Wagner at Arizona State University have suggested that the many images of the moon collected over the years should be examined for signs of alien life. No, seriously.
"If it costs little to scan data for signs of intelligent manipulation, little is lost in doing so, even though the probability of detecting alien technology at work may be exceedingly low," they add.
The scientists focus their attention on Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has mapped a quarter of the moon's surface in high resolution since mid-2009. Among these images, scientists have already spotted the Apollo landing sites and all of the Nasa and Soviet unmanned probes, some of which were revealed only by their odd-looking shadows.
SF fans have had some recent reinforcement for this idea, after viewing the most recent Transformers movie Transformers 3: Dark Side of the Moon in which aliens were found lurking on the moon's backside.
"Although there is only a tiny probability that alien technology would have left traces on the moon in the form of an artefact or surface modification of lunar features, this location has the virtue of being close, and of preserving traces for an immense duration," the scientists write in a paper published online in the journal Acta Astronautica.
(From Transformers 3)
Fans could spend the time in between movies scanning lunar images in the same way that enthusiasts scan Google Earth images.
Via The Guardian; thanks to Moira for the link and the tip.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 12/29/2011)
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