Lights on Apollo 17: “It is a bright object, and it’s obviously rotating because it’s flashing. It’s way out in the distance … because there are particles that are close by and it’s obviously not one of those. It’s apparently rotating in a very rhythmic fashion … there is something out there.”

This recording of Commander Gene Cernan onboard Apollo 17 features at the start of Contact by Daft Punk (more context).

While the recording is interesting in itself, the NASA flight journal from Apollo 17 – Day 4, part 2: Light flash experiment provides some deeper insights. Some interesting quotes:

068:31:46 Cernan: “... it’s coming out from behind a horizon that is almost. It starts out as a semicircle and then folds in to a point like on a pencil, and then it disappears. That’s the horizon and the light is flashing from behind it. It’s gone.” 069:29:03 Cernan: “Okay. And I – I – I just want to emphasize that it’s definitely not – not one of these particles that tends to look like a star out there. It’s something physical in the distance.”

These observations were different to reports of brief flashes “now thought to be due to very high energy cosmic rays interacting with the human optical system.” The reports of flashes are on the same webpage (towards the top) and it’s clear the Apollo crew view them as different phenomena.

There is also the suggestion that the object could be part of the engine casing/rocket stage, but there is further doubt between the crew.

This is just some research after listening to Contact and finally wondering what the sample was from lol – interested to hear others’ thoughts.

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