The declassified documents include images similar to previously released material where pilots saw hard-to-define objects moving in the air. The US Congress ordered the Department of Defense to be more transparent about UFOs. According to wire reports, Apollo 17 astronauts described seeing very bright particles or fragments gliding by while maneuvering, with one noting a whole bunch of big ones in the window that looked like the Fourth of July. Another astronaut added that the shape of some could be seen, describing them as very uneven, angular fragments that spin. The image of the three bright points, which formed an elongated triangle, was classified by the US Department of Defense until now.
Meanwhile, a lunar rock core from Apollo 17 was recently unsealed for the first time in 50 years, revealing more about the Light Mantle, a bright streak believed to be an ancient landslide. The new research was led by Dr Giulia Magnarini. Apollo 17 took the first scientist to the Moon, Harrison Schmitt, and brought back 110.5 kilograms of Moon rock, more than any other Apollo mission. The Light Mantle is a five-kilometer-long deposit at the base of the two-kilometer-high South Massif mountain.
Conspiracy theories claim the Apollo moon landings were faked by NASA, but high-definition photos from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show Apollo landing sites with Lunar Module descent stages and astronaut tracks. Images from 2012 show five of the six Apollo American flags still standing on the Moon. Opinion polls between 1994 and 2009 show 6-20% of Americans, 25% of Britons, and 28% of Russians believe the landings were faked.
A sample of moon rock from Apollo 17 contains a ratio of sulfur isotopes very different from Earth. The sample was a double drive tube pushed 23.6 inches into the lunar regolith and left untouched since 1972. The moon is depleted in sulfur-33 compared to Earth. Previous studies found the ratio of oxygen isotopes in the moon's mantle broadly matches Earth's.