Who's up for a little lunar lunacy? Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 conspiracy theories about the moon.
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00:00Coming up in less than ten seconds now, we'll be crossing into the sphere of influence of the moon.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top ten
00:10conspiracy theories about the moon. Well, are you going to teach us about space or what?
00:17Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about
00:21our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
00:26If you're on your phone, make sure you go into settings and switch on your notifications.
00:3310. The Moon Doesn't Exist
00:35The only reason NASA was founded in 1958 was to keep this thing under wraps.
00:40We'll start with what would appear to be a big one – that the entire thing just isn't real.
00:45For those claiming this, there are a few supposed explanations,
00:48one of which we'll look deeper into in a later entry. But for now, it's flat earth.
00:52Antarctica is stretched around the entire outer edge like an ice wall.
00:57The sun and the moon are very, very small. And the stars are just lights in the sky.
01:03As one of the most bizarre and controversial conspiracy theories going, there aren't many
01:07aspects of the natural world that flat earth hasn't sought to rewrite in one way or another.
01:12And with the moon, according to some interpretations, it's little more than a large,
01:16probably artificial light that's installed onto the ceiling of a grand dome.
01:21The dome then covers the whole of flat earth with no further satellites or orbiting worlds required.
01:339. Buzz Aldrin's Secret Communion
01:35This is, of course, the great day for mankind when we leave our planet Earth and set foot
01:42on the moon. So on this historic day, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are in their lunar
01:47module, in their spacesuits. On this next pass, they are preparing to undock.
01:53In 1969, in the time between the Eagle module landing on the moon and the astronauts Neil
01:58Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin exiting it for the first-ever moonwalk, Aldrin took holy communion,
02:04complete with bread and wine that he had brought from Earth. However, due to rising public debate
02:09at the time and some high-profile lawsuits regarding the separation of church and state,
02:13NASA declined to broadcast the specifics to the world, and the event was mostly hushed up.
02:18The general murkiness of what happened has before led some to wonder about some kind of
02:23higher purpose for the moon. Add into the equation that Aldrin is also a Freemason,
02:28and that he reportedly established Tranquility Lodge No. 2000 on the moon while he was there,
02:34and the questions increase.
02:438. Nuclear Moon
02:46People are dying up here, John.
02:50The virus infection?
02:54The virus infection.
02:55There's a couple of different ways to look at this one. First, there's the question of why
02:59we don't just send our nuclear waste to the moon, to get it out of sight and out of mind. The main
03:04reason is cost. But for some, it's still seemingly too brilliant of an idea for it not to already be
03:11happening, with the moon's fabled dark side being the primary spot for a proposed nuclear dumping
03:16ground… if there is one. Second, though, there's the issue of the moon's origin to consider.
03:21The Giant Impact Hypothesis is the leading theory today, arguing that the moon formed
03:26when the ancient Earth crashed into another early planetoid, which then splintered and
03:31ultimately settled to become the moon. The divergence begins when a Mars-sized object
03:36hits Earth. The impact makes our planet spin faster. However, one alt-theory is that actually
03:50the moon formed following an early and massive nuclear explosion. While it's not widely accepted,
03:56advocates claim that the young Earth experienced a huge nuclear reaction, ripping through its core
04:01and mantle, until what's now the moon was effectively ejected out into space.
04:077. The Moon is a Hologram
04:13Next, and this is the more specific It Doesn't Exist claim mentioned at the beginning of this
04:18list. In general, the idea is that the moon is nothing more than an elaborate hologram,
04:23a projection, beamed into place for unknown reasons. The most often cited evidence for
04:28this is the lunar wave, an apparent phenomenon caught on camera by multiple people and widely
04:34distributed across the internet and social media. Clips show what appears to be a ripple or wave
04:40that spreads across the moon as you look at it. There have been various counterclaims put forward
04:44to insist that any seeming wave can be explained by science and nature, or just faulty technology.
04:51But, for conspiracy theorists, this is some cold, hard proof that the moon is glitching or
04:55reloading because it's a wholly digital construct. 6. Alien Bases
05:07From 1969 to 1972, NASA's six Apollo moon landings defined a golden age in space exploration.
05:16The awesome imagery of those missions made history, but some people believe that this image
05:21reveals a secret history. Mainstream science says that while alien life is statistically likely,
05:26we still haven't discovered it. It's what's known as the Fermi Paradox. With the moon,
05:30though, there are countless claims that actually, we have discovered it. Theorists say that alien
05:35civilisations have long established bases and structures on the moon, and again particularly
05:40on the unseen, dark side. Such ideas often rely on alleged photographic evidence showing what
05:46appears to be buildings, machines, or general anomalies on the lunar surface.
06:04There's also the irresistible element that, if an alien force were watching us, then from the moon
06:09would be the ideal position for them. This part ties in with what's known as the Zoo Hypothesis,
06:15a proposed cosmic model in which aliens watch over humans like humans do with animals at the
06:20zoo. 5. Nazi Moon Landings
06:36Nazi scientists, some of them tied to war crimes including horrific concentration camp experiments,
06:41brought to the US in a secret program to advance American security interests during the Cold War.
06:47At the end of World War Two, there began one of the most uncomfortable and complex
06:52episodes in modern American history. Operation Paperclip. This was the infamous recruiting by
06:58the US of former Nazi scientists in a bid to better science and technological research in
07:04the emerging space race against the USSR. History shows how America ultimately won the race,
07:10largely as a result. However, with all of that as a backdrop, conspiracies have long
07:15been whispered that America performed so well with German help because the Nazis had already
07:20been to the moon. Versions of the theory differ, but it's claimed that Hitler's army
07:36made it to the lunar surface sometime during the early 1940s. Importantly, there's no evidence for
07:42this, but the claim exists all the same. 4. Hollow Moon
08:06Look up at the sky at night, particularly on a full moon, and you may well marvel at the sheer
08:22size of our glowing satellite. It's a pretty substantial mass, and yet one of the most infamous
08:27conspiracy theories about the moon says that actually it's not quite so solid as it may appear.
08:32In general, there are two avenues down which theorists tread. One is that, despite its apparent
08:38sturdiness, the moon is actually a structurally weakened world, littered with holes and tunnels,
08:44to the point that, on its inside, it's basically empty. The other, though, is that the moon is
08:49actually fully hollow because it's an entirely artificial structure. Here, again, supporters
08:55argue that the hollowed-out interior is made that way specifically to house alien beings,
09:01keeping them from the view of Earth. Scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports the idea of a
09:17solid lunar core, however. 3. Spaceship Moon
09:29An extension of Hollow Moon, this theory says that, not only are there vast open spaces inside
09:35the moon, and not only are those spaces occupied by extraterrestrial creatures, but the moon is also
09:40not a moon at all. It's a spaceship, an ancient alien craft positioned in Earth's orbit for
09:47undisclosed reasons that could presumably jet off at any time if it wanted to. Of
09:59course, with such an out-there take on our closest celestial neighbour, there have been
10:03various ideas put forward as to why an alien vehicle might have docked right next to us.
10:08For example, some have applied the Lab Hypothesis, a close relation to the Zoo Hypothesis,
10:14which suggests that any watching alien race might also be experimenting on humankind and life on
10:20Earth in general, with or without any regard for our well-being.
10:302. Fake Moon Landing, Part 1
10:45Over and above every other conspiracy theory involving the moon, there's this. First,
11:02we'll look at the how, and then we'll look at the why. Broadly, the claim is that NASA faked
11:07the 1969 moon landing, and likely all subsequent moon landings thereafter, simply to ensure that
11:13they beat the Soviet Union in the eyes of the watching world. The director, Stanley Kubrick,
11:23is famously said to have been commissioned by NASA to produce the fake footage in a hurriedly
11:28constructed TV studio. It has also been claimed that Arthur C. Clarke wrote the script, and that
11:34Walt Disney provided the funding, although Disney died two and a half years before the landings were
11:39made. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
11:52about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
11:57If you're on your phone, make sure you go into settings and switch on your notifications.
12:011. Fake Moon Landing, Part 2
12:22According to the theory, why did they do it? There have been multiple suggestions tabled
12:27in the years since, for one, and again, to gain victory over the USSR and to assert America as the
12:33dominant nation of the time. It's also been said that it was all hoaxed as part of a massive,
12:39nationwide, psychological drive, however, to get the American public onside with increased military
12:45spending, which may have seemed closely aligned. Given that much of the original footage from the
13:081969 landings has also since been mistakenly erased by NASA, this is a theory that has
13:15just refused to go away. Over the years, almost every aspect of it has been debunked, from the
13:21movement of the flags to the shadows on the ground. But for conspiracy theorists, there's
13:25just no denying that it never actually happened. Which of these theories are you most intrigued by?
13:37Which do you find most convincing or most laughable? Let us know in the comments.
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