Official · Photo · NASA
NASA Marks a Spot Above the Lunar Horizon
An Apollo 12 photograph highlights an area without explaining what appears there.
Released to the public May 8, 20262 min readALIENS editorial
In brief
A NASA archive photo from the Apollo 12 mission shows a highlighted area above the lunar horizon. NASA says unidentified objects can be seen there but does not say what they are.
Summary
NASA archival color photograph from the Apollo 12 mission (1969) depicting the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site. The frame shows the regolith foreground with the long shadow of an astronaut and the Lunar Module legs/structure cast across the surface, the lunar horizon, and the black sky. The image has been modified by the releasing agency: a yellow rectangular highlight box is drawn above the horizon slightly right of the vertical axis, with a yellow trapezoidal callout enlarging that region in the upper portion of the frame to show a small vertical cluster of bluish pixels described by NASA as 'unidentified phenomena.' Per the manifest description, the highlights are contextual only and 'do not constitute an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination.'
Incidents in the document
- 1969 · Apollo 12 landing site, lunar surface (Oceanus Procellarum), n/a
Surface photograph taken on the lunar surface during Apollo 12 EVA. The releasing agency has annotated a small region of the sky above the horizon (slightly right of the vertical center axis) with a yellow highlight box and an enlarged callout, identifying that region as containing 'unidentified phenomena.' The enlarged inset shows a short, roughly vertical chain of bluish/teal speckles against an otherwise black sky.