By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Published: 18:50 BST, 28 August 2026 | Updated: 20:28 BST, 28 August 2026
An image of the moon's surface has sparked theories of extraterrestrial life.
NASA's Lunar Orbiter 3 snapped the photo in 1967, as the agency prepared to send humans there for the first time.
Nearly six decades later, UFO researcher Scott Waring has claimed that it captured something far more extraordinary than the lunar landscape.
He believes an elongated feature in the image is an alien spacecraft hovering above the surface, stretching an astonishing 3.4 miles from end to end.
Waring arrived at that estimate by comparing the feature with Theophilus crater, using a crater diameter of 68 miles and judging the supposed craft to be one-twentieth as long.
For him, the photograph carries a chilling implication.
‘This is 100 percent proof that aliens were watching humans before we ever stepped on the moon,’ he wrote on his website UFO Sightings Daily.
He even suggested that the enormous vessel would be considered a ‘small shuttle craft’ by its supposed occupants.
However, Waring provides no independent evidence that the feature is a spacecraft, and neither its claimed size nor its alleged extraterrestrial origin has been established.
NASA's Lunar Orbiter 3 snapped the photo in 1967, as the agency prepared to send humans there for the first time
Nearly six decades later, UFO researcher Scott Waring has claimed that it captured something far more extraordinary than the lunar landscape
NASA has also maintained that it has no evidence of extraterrestrial life and has yet to find any signs of current or past life on Mars.
Waring, however, is sure that the mysterious object in the photo is an alien craft.
