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We have told you in the past about various news stories reporting apparent alien activity in Google Earth imagery. For example, this story, where sonar tracks from ships were mistaken for an underwater alien base. Or this story where a combination of lighting and image artifacts makes a crater on the moon look like an alien space ship. And, then, there was the secret Mars base. Which, again, is most likely just a result of image artifacts making an ordinary geographical feature look suspiciously regular.

The latest such story comes from a YouTube video posted by YouTuber wowforreeel which has gained over five million views in under a month. It features this image, which at first glance appears to be a human shaped object and its shadow.

However, a quick look at the scale bar at the bottom left reveals that the figure, if real, would have to be hundreds of feet high. So, instead of a human, it would be more like a Colossus as suggested by this article.
A careful look at the surrounding craters reveals that the light in the image is coming from near the bottom of the image and so the apparent shadow is in the wrong direction.

This article on pix11.com quotes a NASA scientist Noah Petro, as saying:

My best guess,” Petro said in a statement to PIX11, “is that it’s something (dust, an eyelash, scratch on the negative) that was on the film. Remember, this was in the pre-digital days when all sorts of nasty things could happen to film.”

So, as with the previous stories, the explanation has to do with how the images were acquired rather than an actual feature on the Moon, but it’s an interesting find nevertheless.

If you wish to see it in Google Earth for yourself, switch to Moon view, and enter these co-ordinates 27°34’26.35″N 19°36’4.75″W in the search box, or you can simply use this KML file to fly to it directly in Google Earth.

The post An alien on the Moon? appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

A recent story on the Daily Mail claims to have found a “craft” on Google Moon.  While you certainly should take anything from that site with a grain of salt, it’s indeed an interesting image:

So what could the image be?  The “object” is likely to be a visual anomaly possibly caused by light from the sun cast on rocks that happen to appear regular at certain angles, and also a function of the resolution of the imagery.  There have been similar sightings in the past, such as the famous “face on Mars” from years ago, which also turned out to be a trick due to resolution of imagery, processing, and lighting.

You can check it out for yourself by loading this KML file.  Be sure to enable the “featured satellite images” layer in Google Moon in order to see this particular image.

What do you think it might be?

(via Daily Mail)

The post What is that mystery object on Google Moon? appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

While hundreds millions of people have used Google Earth over the years, many aren’t aware of some of the great things it can do.  One of those is the ability to explore our moon, which is an excellent feature to have.  Google first introduced this feature back in 2009, and it’s still amazing to see.

Just look for the little planet icon in the upper middle of Google Earth and you’ll see an option titled “Moon“. The moon in Google Earth changes the virtual globe into a 3D rendition of the moon. The terrain of the moon is in 3D and there are layers telling you more about the moon.

Here’s a screenshot that Frank took a few years ago showing the Apollo 11 landing site:

The first thing you should check out in the Google Earth moon mode is the awesome Apollo 11 tour found in the layers under: Moon Gallery->Guided Tours->Apollo 11. This tour is narrated by Andrew Chaiken and Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and is one of the best illustrations of the Apollo 11 mission I’ve seen to date!

Here is a YouTube video introduction of Moon in Google Earth by Google:

When this feature first came out, Frank was fortunate enough to be on hand for the official announcement, and he mentioned quite a few thoughts and features about this new piece of Google Earth.  After you finish reading that, head into Google Earth and try it out for yourself if you never have before.

The post Exploring the moon in Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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