Chandre, what you say is quite intriguing, thanks for the reply You should definitely continue with your research. I remember R. Hoagland discussing "smoking gun evidense" based on similar IR image taken by LCROSS. I will try however to identify the few other bright craters in Google Moon, but don't promise success on that.
=========================================================== Hi Chandre, as expected the task of identifying the other bright spots from the picture is impossible. There are so many craters nearby, its real nightmare trying to pinpoint the exact locations of the brighter ones ===========================================================
-- Edited by Humanoid on Wednesday 16th of September 2009 11:40:04 PM
Hi Humanoid Ok, I'll have a shot at that one. I find Tycho absolutely fascinating. I was doing a lot of work on it in my images that have been lost. I promise I will get around to it again and will post some of what I am about to say. The 'crater' walls have terraced structures and some facscinating possible machine/statues. I know a lot has been written on this. So, lets say its true and there was once a sizeable settlement in the crater and much of the structures were made up of a certain heat-absorbing substance like say titanium (which absorbs heat better than plastic !). Or lets say that just the base of the crater had been lined with titanium to support a glass dome and seal the settlement. That would absorb the heat and you would see what you were looking at in the image you posted. I see a few more smaller ones as well, do you know which craters those are ? Maybe the same applies......
Explanation: In September of 1996, the Midcourse Space Experimen (MSX) satellite had a spectacular view of a total lunar eclipse from Earth orbit. SPIRIT III, an on board infrared telescope, was used to repeatedly image the moon during the eclipse. Above is one of the images taken during the 70 minute totality, the Moon completely immersed in the Earth's shadow. Infrared light has wavelengths longer than visible light - humans can not see it but feel it as heat. So, the bright spots correspond to the warm areas on the lunar surface, and dark areas are cooler. The brightest spot below and left of center is the crater Tycho, while the dark region at the upper right is the Mare Crisium.
Ok but why is Tycho crater so hot and rest of the surface relatively cooler? Any ideas?