Video taken from the International Space Station depicts a fuzzy, missile-shaped object that some commentators believe may be an orbital weapon of the kind frequently boasted of by North Korea.
For years, Pyongyang floated the idea of launching missiles from an orbital weapons platform for the purposes of decommissioning global telecommunication networks. A few global security experts have speculated that if a few satellite systems were struck by missiles, the resulting shrapnel could cascade in orbit, shredding other satellites.
Most analysts, however, point out that North Korea lacks the technological, logistical and resource capability to launch an orbital weapons platform, pointing instead toward the United States, although for entirely different reasons. The US aerospace industry has long contemplated placing nuclear weapons systems in high orbit so as to rapidly strike anywhere.
So is it North Korean, American, or, something else?
Extreme views suggest the object is of an alien nature. Earlier this week, alien enthusiasts claimed to have found proof of life on the moon after identifying lunar structures, suggesting occupation.
According to UFO spotters and conspiracy theorists, there are 200-foot-tall pyramid-like towers at the rim of a lunar crater that are thought to have been artificially constructed. The narrator of a video posted by the extraterrestrial watchdog group SecureTeam10, states, “If (after watching this video) you believe that the Moon is not inhabited by these massive artificial structures, you will likely never be convinced.”
The narrator further alleges that NASA has long known about the presence of aliens on the moon, but airbrushed evidence out of officially-released photos of the lunar surface.
Whether airbrushed ephemera, digital noise or, in fact, aliens, the debate rages on, and sometimes, what we don’t know can hurt us.