What is the Moon Mona Lisa?
The Moon Mona Lisa is an urban legend that “a secret American lunar mission found a female alien sleeping on the far side of the Moon.” Because the alien’s face resembled Leonardo da Vinci’s painting the Mona Lisa, it is called by this name.
The nonexistent “Apollo 20”
The story began with a series of videos posted on a video-sharing site in 2007. The poster, who claimed to be a former astronaut, explained that “on the Apollo 20 mission, carried out in secret jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1976, we investigated a huge ancient spaceship that had crashed on the far side of the Moon.” The videos showed what looked like a spaceship on the lunar surface and a woman-like figure, with tubes coming from her nose and mouth, said to have been found inside.
Why it is considered fake
The actual Apollo program ended with Apollo 17 in 1972; Apollo 18 through 20 were canceled because of budget cuts and other reasons. There is no record of an Apollo 20 launch, and no rockets remained that could have launched it. The poster is said to have later made remarks suggesting the story was made up, and the footage is thought to have been created using models and the like.
Mysteries of the Moon
Many urban legends surround the Moon, such as the Moon landing hoax theory, pyramids on the Moon and the Black Knight satellite said to orbit the Earth. The “far side of the Moon,” which can never be seen from Earth, has been the setting for many stories as a place that invites the imagination.
