Here are three examples of what possibly point to life on the Moon. Why have these findings been brushed under the carpet? The discovery of life even in microbial form has profound implications in the understanding our origins and life in the universe as a whole.
1. According to the Journal of Cosmology, in 1970 lunar soil samples were returned to Earth by the Luna 16 spacecraft in a hermetically sealed container and photographed. These photographs were later examined by Drs. Stanislav Zhmur, and Lyudmila M. Gerasimenko, scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences who identified what they believed to be microfossils of Coccoidal bacteria which resembled Siderococcus or Sulfolobus.
Lunar mirofossils resembling Siderococcus.
Journal of Cosmology
2.
A third fossilized impression from the lunar surface resembles a spiral filamentous micro-Ediacaran, a species which became extinct over 500,000 years ago. In 2009, Dr. Rhawn Joseph showed this photograph to five world-renowned experts in Cambrian and Pre-Cambrian fauna, and four of the 5 identified it as a microfossil.
Lunar mirofossil resembling a micro-Ediacaran.
Journal of Cosmology
3. In 1971, the TV camera of the Surveyor space craft was recovered by Apollo 12 astronauts, after being on the Moon for three years. A single bacterium (Streptococcus mitis) was found. It was also revealed that the lunar camera was covered with a film of "organic material of unknown origin".
The Counter Claims
•
It is not possible for Streptococcus mitis, which is a common bacterium from the human mouth, to have survived for two and a half years on the Moon inside the Surveyor 3 camera, to be detected when it was returned to Earth on board the Apollo 12. Streptococcus mitis lives in the mouth; there is no evidence that it can survive for long even in terrestrial environments outside the human body. Further, it cannot survive outside of a narrow temperature range and therefore it isn’t possible that it could survive on the moon.
• According to NASA’s Leonard D. Jaffe, a Surveyor program scientist and curator of the Surveyor 3 components brought back from the Moon, somebody on his staff who had witnessed the biological test (which gave positive results), reported that a "breach of sterile procedure" took place at just the right time to produce a false positive result. He further claims that one of the tools being used to study the samples was inadvertently placed on a non-sterile lab bench, which was then used to collect the samples. It was that sample set which showed the presence of Streptococcus mitis.
To quote Jaffe, "It is, therefore, quite possible that the microorganisms were transferred to the camera after its return to Earth, and that they had never been to the Moon."
So let’s analyse Jaffe’s contentions:
The possibility of contamination prior to sending the camera to the moon, or after it was returned, was ruled out by the scientists who made this discovery. Was Mr Jaffe, present when the discovery was made? No! Further, he was not even associated with the analysis! He has attempted to discredit this discovery by making false statements that have no basis in reality. The hoax perpetrated by Jaffe is easily disproved.
The fact is that a dirty work bench would have contained millions of diverse bacteria. Nor could the microbe be the result of some other form of contamination, such as a sneeze or cough.
Since a droplet of saliva contains an average of 750 million organisms, if contamination of the lunar TV camera was due to a scientist's inadvertent cough or sneeze, a multitude of related bacteria, and a "representation of the entire microbial population would be expected," rather than a single species and a single organism (Mitchell & Ellis, 1971). Moreover, this Streptococcus mitis was dormant, but came back to life.
But according to Dirk Schulze-Makuch of the Department of Geology, Washington State University, Streptococcus mitis can exist only in moist environments.
So what about the Moon? It has now been established beyond doubt that there is water on the moon as confirmed by India’s Chandrayaan spacecraft. Not just buckets full, but there’s tons of it! And what about the requirement of atmosphere on the Moon for microbes to survive? Well there exist MASCONS (Massive Concentrations of gravity) on many areas on the Moon leading to the possibility of pockets of atmosphere however tenuous, held in place by these MASCONS.
But how could microbes have appeared on the Moon? In the 1970s, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe began to suspect that life on Earth could have come from space. Brig Klyce, who studies cosmic ancestry and panspermia notes that several studies point to the presence of complex organics in space. If they could survive the harsh conditions of deep space, then why can’t they survive on the Moon and Mars that have comparatively a more conducive environment? It is quite possible that micro-organisms exist in the deep craters of the Moon hidden in moist crevices that shield them from radiation and cosmic particles.
What About Mars?
As mentioned earlier, one of the prerequisites for life is water. So how could life exist on Mars in the absence of water? But wait! Here’s what Viking I and II discovered:
Hydrogen Densities (Probably Water) on Mars with Viking 1 and 2 Landing Sites Located (VL1 & VL2).
Where there’s water, there a possibility of life!
Courtesy: LANL
For those of you who are interested, heres’ an interesting thread I found on ATS… Scientific Evidence Of Life On Mars!! Why is NASA Obfuscating The Truth?
NASA seems to have screwed up this one!
Artist's impression of a mirror-smooth lake on the surface of Saturn's smoggy moon Titan. Photo: NASA
Researchers at the space agency believe they have discovered vital clues that appeared to indicate that primitive aliens could be living on the moon.
Data from Nasa's Cassini probe has analysed the complex chemistry on the surface of Titan, which experts say is the only moon around the planet to have a dense atmosphere.
They suggest that life forms may have been breathing in the planet’s atmosphere and also feeding on its surface’s fuel.
Astronomers claim the moon is generally too cold to support even liquid water on its surface.
The research has been detailed in two separate studies.
The first paper, in the journal Icarus, shows that hydrogen gas flowing throughout the planet’s atmosphere disappeared at the surface. This suggested that alien forms could in fact breathe.
The second paper, in the Journal of Geophysical Research, concluded that there was lack of the chemical on the surface.
Scientists were then led to believe it had been possibly consumed by life.
Researchers had expected sunlight interacting with chemicals in the atmosphere to produce acetylene gas. But the Cassini probe did not detect any such gas.
Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at Nasa Ames Research Centre, at Moffett Field, California who led the research, said: “We suggested hydrogen consumption because it's the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan, similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth.
"If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life, it would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life independent from water-based life on Earth.”
Professor John Zarnecki, of the Open University, added: “We believe the chemistry is there for life to form. It just needs heat and warmth to kick-start the process.
“In four billion years’ time, when the Sun swells into a red giant, it could be paradise on Titan.”
They warned, however, that there could be other explanations for the findings.
But taken together, they two indicate two important conditions necessary for methane-based life to exist.
A psychologist at Grant MacWean University in Canada reckons that people who play videogames more often are more likely to be able to control their dreams. Jayne Gackenbach surveyed the dreams of both non-gamers and hardcore gamers, and found that those who frequently played games experienced lucid dreams more often.
"If you're spending hours a day in a virtual reality, if nothing else it's practice," said Gackenbach. "Gamers are used to controlling their game environments, so that can translate into dreams." While the findings are preliminary, and haven't been backed up by other studies elsewhere, they have some precedence in that lucid dreamers and gamers have both been reported separately as being less prone to motion sickness and exhibiting better spatial skills.
However, correlation is not causation, so Gackenbach assembled groups of college students and asked them how often they had lucid dreams, where they could actively influence and change their dreams. Those who played videogames were more likely to report lucidity, but interestingly they reported being limited to just controlling to their dream selves -- rather than having control over the entire dream world.
Gackenbach has since replicated her findings a few times over, and controlled for factors like the frequency of recalling dreams. "The first time we simply asked people how often they had lucid dreams, looking back over their life and making judgment calls," Gackenbach told LiveScience. "That's open to all kinds of bias, [such as] certain memory biases, self-reported biases."
She also discovered that gamers are troubled less by nightmares than non-gamers, which matches up with Finnish psychologist Antti Revonsuo's "threat simulation" theory. That theory suggests that nightmares evolved to help people practice for life-threatening situations in a safe environment. In gamers, the thinking goes, they get to practice those situations in games so have less need of nightmares.
Gackenbach took 35 males and 63 females, and found that gamers experienced less threat simulation in dreams than non-gamers, with fewer "aggresssion" dreams overall. Interestingly, gamers also reported sometimes becoming the threatening presence themselves. Future research, Gackenbach says, will be targeted at studying the violence levels in games, and how they affect this phenomenon. Do kids' games have the same effect as more mature, violent titles?
The research could help in a number of areas, particularly with helping war veterans troubled by nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder. Virtual reality simulators have already been used to treat some people suffering from nightmares after enduring combat. The question is whether games could have the same effect.
The work will be discussed at the sixth annual Games for Health conference in Boston.
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