Islam worships the Moon God. Evident in Obama’s efforts to use NASA to build a relationship. Islam feels we blasphemed their God by walking on him when we landed and walked on the moon. Mecca holds the Meteor in the Ka aba that they pray towards.
One of the goofier gods in the Egyptian pantheon (Which seems to be about the size of the Manhattan Phone Book), was Aapep, the Moon Snake.
Maybe they are trying to bring that guy back.
This is not to demean geniune contributions and publications, of course, like "Propagation of Detonation Waves in Infidel Tissue", "Commerical Aircraft as Demolition Media", and that titllating tome, "Internal Anatomy of the Female Goat".