Scientists Refute Claims of 'UFO' Sightings

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

# Approved For Release 2005/06/29 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010014-6

American scientists recently made public the information they had received. At the point where the Surveyor 5 landed, the surface of the Sea of Tranquillity was covered by a mineral of volcanic origin--a substance similar to the composition of terrestrial basalt. The oxygen content of the substance was from 53-63 percent, silicon 15-21 percent, aluminum 4-8 percent, a group of iron, cobalt and nickel with an admixture of sulphur occupies next place with more than 3 percent, and it also contains magnesium, carbon, sodium, and other elements heavier than nickel in minute quantities. A magnet on the side of the cosmic apparatus attracted small particles of the iron.

As can be seen, the information from Surveyor 5 supports information concerning the composition of the moon's surface which Soviet scientists received 1 1/2 years ago on the basis of gamma-spectrometrical measurements. The data now reported by American scientists will be of a preliminary character. In addition, it relates only to a single, chance spot on the moon surface. Factual material on the mineralogical composition of the moon must be significantly extended in the future. Alongside the mentioned important problems concerning the moon's origin and evolution, study of the mineralogical composition of its surface strata will provide the key for understanding an entire series of other, still-disputed questions. For example, such information would shed light on the nature of the erosion of lunar soil.

Is the lunar mass increasing or decreasing because of micrometeorite bombardment? Analysis of television panoramas transmitted by Luna 9 led Soviet scientists to a conclusion of negative balance of the lunar surface masses. Micrometeorites cut into the moon at speeds of dozens of kilometers per second. The speed of the particles dislodged by them often exceeds the second escape velocity for the moon which constitutes only 2.4 kilometers per second. They are leaving it forever. The total mass of the flying particles is more than the mass of the falling micrometeorites and, as Soviet geochemist K.P. Florenskiy proved, the moon surface undergoes continuous renewal.

## EXISTENCE OF FLYING SAUCERS DISCLAIMED

## Moscow TASS International Service in English 0539 GMT 29 Feb 68 L

[Text] Moscow--Nobody has any truly new facts proving the existence of "flying saucers," says PRAVDA. Neither astronomers and explorers of the earth's atmosphere nor the Soviet antiaircraft defense men ever seen them. "All objects flying over our country are identified either by scientists or by the people who stand guard over our country's security. Had some 'unidentified flying objects' really existed, scientists would have been the first to receive necessary information about them and would have started studying their nature," says the article signed by chairman of the Astronomical Council of the Soviet Academy of Sciences Evald Mustel, President of the All-Union Astronomical-Geodetic Society Dmitriy Martynov, and Secretary of the Soviet Physicists National Committee Vladimir Leshkovtsev.

In connection with the appearance of reports in the Soviet press concerning "unidentified flying objects," the question of propagandizing "flying saucers" was discussed at the Soviet Academy of Sciences. A report was made by Academician Lev Artsimovich. Scientists pointed out that this propaganda has a anti-scientific sensational character and that these "surmises have no scientific basis whatsoever, the objects observed are of a well-known nature."