What on earth is this on the Moon?

[Mikesingh]

Hi all! It's been quite some time since I posted. Here's an image which has defied an explanation so far. This is the object on the Moon, seemingly smudged out partially by NASA?… What do you think it is?


Latitude = -35 (not 35)
Longitude = 208
This is the original image taken from the Clementine image browser

www.cmf.nrl.navy.mil...

And whatever happened to this Clementine website?

[ArMaP]

Hi all! It's been quite some time since I posted.

Nice to "see" you again, it's been a looong time.

Here's an image which has defied an explanation so far. This is the object on the Moon, seemingly smudged out partially by NASA? What do you think it is?

Is that from the original Clementine Image Browser, the one that tried to create images from empty space? If it is then it's just that, an artefact of the software used on the first version of the Clementine Image Browser that mixed the images surrounding missing photos with the empty area.

And whatever happened to this Clementine website?

That site appears to be down.

[thorfourwinds]

As I live and breathe...

Mikesingh has returned!

Welcome back!!!!!

[rdunk]

www.cmf.nrl.navy.mil...

And whatever happened to this Clementine website?



Hi Mike! .........Yes, the link doesn't work, maybe because it is not complete. At least the website is still up -

https://www.nrl.navy.mil/clementine/image-gallery

But I did not see your pic in the "gallery" at this link - what is seen in your pic certainly looks odd for the geology we can see in the area! And yes, it does look smudged!

[ArMaP]

But I did not see your pic in the "gallery" at this link - what is seen in your pic certainly looks odd for the geology we can see in the area! And yes, it does look smudged!

I suppose you're not familiar with the story of the Clementine Image Browser.

Version 1.1 had those images with a too aggressive compression and, from my understanding of the way it worked, it tried to blend the borders of the photos together, creating a mosaic "on the fly", as most photos have an area in common with the photos of the surrounding areas. The problem we see on the image from the opening post resulted when there was no image to show (some areas were never photographed or were photographed by just some of the several filters, and when the Clementine Image Browser was first launched some photos were still missing, but they appeared later), so the software tried to blend a black rectangle with the photos around it, resulting in that "smudged" look, as it was, in fact, a kind of average of the pixels of the missing area with those around it.

Version 1.5 and 2 did not have this problem, and the original photos have been available to anyone that wants to look for them.

Edited to add that, if I'm not mistaken, this page shows that area.

[The Seeker]

Hi Mike  Glad to see you pop round, just jump on in and throw some anomalies at us 

Some contend it is an artifact generated by the browser trying to fill in a gap in the stitching created by a missing photo; could very well be, i am not a photo analyst or expert; but i fail to see how the clear parts of the image can have delineated straight lines that are a totally different hue that blend into the blurred area and be a compression artifact...



Seeker

[Irene]

Swamp gas reflecting off a weather balloon in an inversion layer refracted by ice crystals . . .

[ArMaP]

Swamp gas reflecting off a weather balloon in an inversion layer refracted by ice crystals . . .

You forgot the blurry rocks.