In the summer of 1964, terrestrial telescopes were pointed directly at the moon in the hopes of obtaining a glimpse of the strange red illuminations—some as broad as 12 miles—seen at Lowell Observatory the previous winter by Air Force “moon mappers” charting lunar terrain for future missions.
At the time, some joked that they were the glowing campfires of Russian explorers, who were now leading the space race.
The action looked to be focused around Aristarchus, a big crater. Dr. John Hall of the Lowell Observatory, for example, theorised that tidal forces would deform the moon’s crust, enabling heated volcanic gases to escape.
This occurrence became known as the Transient Lunar Phenomenon (TLP) throughout time, and it was determined that these unexplained lights had a lengthy history. In June 1178, Canterbury monks saw them; in April 1787, British astronomer Sir William Herschel saw them; in 1866, Julius Schmidt, a lunar cartographer, saw them; and in November 1958, Russian scientists saw them.
During the Apollo 11 flight in 1969, NASA was fortunate enough to get a notification from West Germany about these lights near the Aristarchus crater. The astronauts’ observations on the moon corroborated those on Earth: “an region that is substantially more illuminated. it seems to have a tiny degree of fluorescence,” Neil Armstrong observed.
There are several theories ranging from impact events and electrical phenomena to outgassing and atmospheric distortions. If Armstrong is to be believed, the latter does not follow, since both Germans on Earth and astronauts on the moon experienced the same occurrence. Furthermore, Armstrong’s description of a luminous phenomena seems to rule out a number of popular hypotheses. It’s possible that something completely else is going on.
We won’t be able to solve these puzzles until we can return to the moon or else maintain a constant presence (possibly with robotic lunar rovers).
