• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • FFS PRODUCTIONS
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Clear photo of family has been left on moon for 50 years with a message for whoever finds it

Home> News> US News

Published 18:51 23 Feb 2024 GMT

Clear photo of family has been left on moon for 50 years with a message for whoever finds it

It was left by the youngest ever person to walk on the Moon's surface

Joe Harker

Joe Harker

If you're ever lucky enough to make it onto the surface of the Moon then you might try to find a family photo with a message on it left behind by one of your predecessors.

It was placed there by Charles Duke, who was part of the Apollo 16 mission and set foot on the Moon in 1972.

The youngest astronaut ever to walk on the Moon, Duke nearly got himself into serious trouble trying to set a record for the highest lunar jump.

He was able to make it two feet and eight inches off the ground but was unable to keep his balance when he landed and fell backwards onto his spacesuit's life support unit.

Advert

Had the fall damaged his suit it would have killed him, and his fellow astronaut commented: "That ain't very smart."

Charles Duke on the surface of the Moon.
HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

When his time on the surface of the Moon was over Duke left two things behind, one was a commemorative air force medal and the other was a photo of his family.

The picture also had a message on it, left for anyone who would walk upon that particular patch of the Moon that might find the image and wonder what it meant.

It reads: "This is the family of astronaut Charlie Duke from planet Earth who landed on the moon on April 20, 1972."

Advert

However, after almost 52 years up there the sunlight the Moon is subjected to has most likely bleached the picture clear, and we don't know if Duke's message survived either.

The family photo isn't the only thing astronauts have left on the Moon in the various trips we've made up there.

Charles Duke's family photo, it's still up there on the Moon.
NASA

There are of course a bunch of flags placed up there, as each landing was marked by planting a flag to continue the tradition started by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969.

Bleaching from the sunlight means that most of these flags are now likely to be completely white instead of bearing the stars and stripes.

Advert

There's also the ashes of US geologist Gene Shoemaker, which were placed into a capsule and taken to the Moon when he died.

Also cluttering up the surface of the Moon is a bunch of equipment we left behind up there, some golf balls from when Alan Shepard snuck a golf club head onto the Apollo 14 mission and somewhat disgustingly 96 bags of human waste.

Oddly enough scientists would quite like to study those bags to see what being on the Moon all these years has done.

Featured Image Credit: NASA

Topics: Space, NASA

Joe Harker
Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

X

@MrJoeHarker

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • NASA announces first crewed mission to the Moon in 50 years and it's very soon
  • Three viral conspiracies from famous photo of Buzz Aldrin planting US flag on the Moon
  • NASA 'considering blowing up' asteroid before potential Moon crash in seven years
  • James Webb telescope makes incredible universe discovery and finds part of it is not what it seems

Choose your content:

11 hours ago
12 hours ago
13 hours ago
  • Franco Origlia/Getty Images
    11 hours ago

    Satanic priest who 'sold his soul to devil' becomes newest saint in the Catholic Church

    Bartolo Longo's backstory is arguably the most unique out of the seven people who were made saints by Pope Leo XIV

    News
  • Hew Morrison
    11 hours ago

    Main theories behind what happened to well-dressed woman who took coffee sip then jumped to death from 262ft tower

    The mystery surrounding her death is no closer to being solved more than two decades on

    News
  • Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
    12 hours ago

    Brian Cox issues defiant response after expert warned us to 'brace ourselves' for mystery 'alien spaceship'

    Professor Brian Cox has taken to social media to speak about the theories

    News
  • Facebook/Coral Expeditions
    13 hours ago

    Elderly woman dies after being left on a deserted island by cruise ship

    The 80-year-old Australian is believed to have split off from the group during a hike

    News