Landings, impact flashes and reported lunar glows.
On July 31, 1964 Ranger 7 transmitted thousands of images before its planned impact. The sequence revealed lunar terrain in detail beyond the reach of contemporary ground telescopes.
Two lunar cartographers reported temporary coloured areas. Their observations attracted detailed discussion, but the reported glow’s origin remains unresolved.
Grainy pictures from October 1959 revealed an unseen hemisphere, traveling from film inside a spacecraft to retouched newspaper prints.
In September 1959 a Soviet probe's radio signal ended at the Moon: a planned collision rather than a mysterious disappearance.
Nikolai Kozyrev reported a changing central peak and an unusual spectrum. The historical interpretation remains open to scrutiny.
