90 Miles From Tyranny

Saturday, January 25, 2014

10 Strange Secrets Of The Moon

The Moon is humanity’s nearest companion in our travels in space and the only celestial body that we have had the chance to actually visit. Still, despite its relative closeness and familiarity, our satellite continues to hold many interesting secrets. From its scientific strangeness to the many ways it affects our lives, the Moon is a mystery that is definitely worth a closer look.

10Moonquakes

Despite being a dead hunk of rock with very little geological activity, the Moon is prone to shaking fits. These earthquake-like tremors are called moonquakes, and there are four different kinds of them. The first three types—deep quakes, vibrations from meteorite impacts, and thermal quakes caused by the Sun’s heat—are relatively harmless. The fourth one, however, can be quite unpleasant. These “shallow” moonquakes can register up to 5.5 on the Richter scale—enough to move large furniture around—and last for a remarkably long 10 minutes. According to NASA, these quakes also have the effect of making the Moon “ring like a bell.”

The frightening thing about moonquakes is that we have no real idea of what causes them. Earth’s earthquakes are usually caused by the movement of tectonic plates, but the Moon doesn’t have any active plate tectonics. Some researchers think they may have some link to Earth’s tidal activity, which is caused by the Moon’s pull. However, this theory is inconclusive, as the tidal forces affect the entirety of the Moon, but moonquakes are usually localized.

9The “Twin Planet”

Most people think the Moon is, well, a moon, but there is some talk that it should actually be classified as a planet. For one, it’s far too big to be a “true” moon. Being about one-fourth of the diameter of Earth, it is easily the biggest moon in relation to its planet in our solar system. (Pluto has a moon called Charon that is half its diameter in size, but since Pluto isn’t a real planet anymore, it doesn’t count.)

Because of its large size, the Moon doesn’t actually orbit Earth at all. Instead, Earth and Moon orbit each other, around a point between them. This point iscalled a barycenter, and the illusion the Moon is actually orbiting Earth comes from the fact that the barycenter is currently located inside the Earth’s crust. The fact that the barycenter remains inside the Earth is pretty much the only reason Earth and Moon aren’t classified as a twin planet, instead of a planet and its satellite. However, this may change in the future.

8Moon Trash

Everybody knows that man has been on the Moon, but not everyone is aware that he treated the place like a picnic area. Over time, the astronauts who visited the Moon managed to leave quite a bit of trash behind. It is estimated that there’s 181,437 kilograms (about 400,000 lbs) of man-made materials lying around the Moon.

Don’t worry, though—it’s not as if the astronauts have been purposely littering the place and throwing sandwich wrappers and banana peels everywhere. Most of that garbage is debris from various experiments, space probes and lunar rovers. Some of it is, in fact, still functional today. There is also some real trash, however, such as astronaut poop containers. Gross.

7The Moon Is A Burial Ground

Eugene “Gene” Shoemaker, a famous astronomer and geologist, was something of a legend in his field. He invented the scientific research of cosmic impacts and came up with the methods and techniques that Apollo astronauts used to research the Moon.

Shoemaker wanted to be an astronaut himself, but was turned down because of a minor medical issue. Throughout his life, this remained his biggest disappointment. Still, hoping against hope, Shoemaker kept on dreaming that he would some day visit the Moon. When he died, NASAfulfilled his most precious wish and sent his ashes to the Moon with the Lunar Prospector in 1998. His ashes remain there, scattered among moon dust.

6Lunar Anomalies

Some of the pictures taken by the various vessels that have visited it show some very strange things on the Moon’s surface. Many of these images seem to show artificial constructs that range from tiny canister-like shapes to the “Shard,” which appears to be a towering structure that could be at