My Science School

          Much before Man landed on the Moon, spacecraft were sent into space. The space race officially began in the 1950s when the former Soviet Union and America began sending a bunch of rockets into space.

          There was a neck-to-neck competition between the two countries. But, the Soviet Union stood one step ahead in the competition with the successful launch of Sputnik I. Their superiority in journeys to the Moon began with the launch of Luna 1.

          Luna 1 created history in 1959; it was the first vehicle to fly near the Moon. It was launched as a part of the Soviet Luna Programme. It became famous as the first spacecraft to leave the geocentric orbit. It could not detect any magnetic field on the Moon as well.

          However, a malfunction in the ground-based control system caused an error in the burn time of the rocket and as a result it could not land on the Moon. Luna 1 was followed by several missions some of which were major flops.

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          For a long time, people believed that there was life on the Moon. The French astronomer Adrien Auzout was one of the first scientists to challenge this idea with observational data. He proposed that no changes were observed on the lunar surface and published his observations in the first volume of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Auzout began his discussion with the changes the lunar inhabitants might observe on the surface of the Earth. They would see moving clouds, the increasing green colours as crops grow, and a decrease in dark areas as forests were cut.

          Such changes that seem natural have never been observed on the surface of the Moon. Thus, he concluded that there was no life on the Moon. Also, since there were no seas or clouds on the Moon, it was unlikely that it had an atmosphere. Though his observations were precise, they did not create any impact on people.

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          In the last week of August 1853, The Sun, a New York newspaper came up with an article series that got America talking. The article series talked about some of the stunning discoveries made by the British astronomer Sir John Herschel.

          Apparently, Sir John Herschel had made a huge new telescope with which he observed the celestial bodies. The article talked in length about Sir John’s most celebrated finding- life on the Moon. The articles talked about creatures on the Moon that were half human and half bat. These creatures built several temples on the Moon. There were also other fantastic animals and oceans. The paper created so much excitement and thousands of copies were sold. But, the article turned out to be a hoax. In fact, even Sir John didn’t know about the discoveries that were attributed to him.

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          Grove Karl Gilbert was an American geologist who proposed that the Moon was formed by the accretion of small rocky particles.

          The American cosmochemist Harold Urey supported this view almost sixty years later. He believed that accretion was a cold process; the Moon formed almost 4.5 billion years ago without any volcanic eruption. Rather, it took shape from cold chondritic material-small meteorite particles with mineral granules.

          This was not true though. Urey was later proved wrong. Apollo observers confirmed that the maria were volcanic lava flows, and the Moon had been hot.

          Urey later came up with another theory about the capture of a moon that was once formed elsewhere in the solar system. This proposition remained popular for a while.

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          Lunar craters were first noted by Galileo. He thought these craters to be volcanic in nature. For most of that time, various varieties of the volcanic theories were used to understand lunar craters. This was before the discovery of asteroids.

          After the discovery of asteroids, it came to be thought that cosmic collisions could have formed lunar craters. Richard Proctor was one of the first astronomers to talk about impact craters in his book that came out in 1873.

          In 1893, the American geologist G. K. Gilbert seconded Proctor’s findings after a couple of experiments; he considered the impact of cosmic collisions as the most likely reason for the formation of craters. These findings led to the development of lunar stratigraphy in the 1950s.

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          For the last 20 years of the 18th century, the German astronomer Johann Hieronymus Schroter studied the surface of the Moon. He produced two volumes of Selenotopographische Fragmente. The books contained individual studies of five distinct lunar regions and features.

          These drawings contained details like ridges, numerous rills and domes, and tall mountains. Schroter found out that large craters were proportionately more shallow and flat-floored than smaller bowl-shaped ones.

          However, the first modern investigation of the lunar surface appeared with the publication of a detailed map and book by Wilhelm Beer and Johann Madler.

          The work was titled Der Mond and was released between 1834 and 1837. They succeeded in showing that the Moon was very different from the Earth. They also proposed that the Moon had no atmosphere, and hence no water. Their findings contradicted some of Galileo’s postulations.

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          The nature of the studies about the Moon and other celestial bodies began to change in the 1600s. Galileo Galilei designed a telescope to closely observe the Moon.

          Galileo Galilei was one of the first astronomers to make telescopic drawings of the Moon; his drawings are compiled in his book titled Sidereus Nuncius. He discovered that the Moon’s surface was not as smooth as it appeared to be.

          The 17th century was a period of telescopic mappings. Later, Giovanni Battista Riccioli and Francesco Maria Grimaldi worked out the system of naming the lunar features. Their lunar terminology is in use even today. This was followed by the trigonometrically accurate studies about lunar features, like the heights of several mountains.

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          The excited shriek ‘Eureka’ is the first thing that comes to our mind when we think of Archimedes. Archimedes was one man with many thoughts and curiosities. He made significant contributions in the study of astronomy as well.

          Archimedes designed a mechanical planetarium. Much of what we know about this mechanical planetarium comes from Cicero’s writings. This device could calculate the motions of the Moon and other objects in the Solar System, including eclipses. It demonstrated the daily movements of the Moon and five other planets. Archimedes designed this mechanical universe in a glass globe.

          The glass sphere representing the universe contained the motions of the stars around the Earth, the eclipses of the Sun and Moon, and their movements along the elliptic path.

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          Aristotle brought out a philosophical description of the universe. In it, the Moon was described as a border element, a boundary between the Earth and other imperishable stars. This philosophical view dominated the thoughts about the Moon for centuries.

          Some important studies about the Moon and its movement came out in the second century BC. Seleucus of Seleucia studied and theorized tides and tidal movements. He found out that tides were formed due to the attraction of the Moon, and that their height depended on the Moon’s position relative to the Sun.

          Aristarchus is credited with another important finding. He computed the size and distance of the Moon from the Earth. According to his findings, the distance from the Earth to the Moon is almost twenty times the radius of the Earth. Ptolemy studied and improved these values further.

          The temple astronomers of Babylon had observed the skies for centuries and had recorded their observations in astronomical diaries, and other catalogues. Their predictions are almost accurate to this day.

          In fact, the Assyrians and Babylonians regarded lunar eclipses as evil omens. They believed that eclipses were directed against their kings. This was one reason why they studied more about the Moon. They studied the length of the synodic month, the period between two full moons. Their observations were almost error free. Using these data on the synodic month, the Babylonian astronomers were able to predict lunar eclipses and solar eclipses later.

          They also recorded the 18-year Saros cycle of lunar eclipses. A Saros cycle is the period of 223 synodic months-18 years and 11.3 days- after which lunar and solar eclipses repeat themselves. The predictability of the lunar eclipse made it possible for the Babylonians to appoint substitute kings who would bear the burden of the wrath of the gods.

 

 

          Ancient scientists and astronomers were fascinated by moonlight. The ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras was one of the first scholars to understand the nature of moonlight. His investigations suggested that the Sun and the Moon were both giant spherical rocks, and that the Moon reflected the light of the Sun.

          The Chinese of the Han dynasty believed in the ‘radiating influence’ of the Moon. They recognized that the light of the Moon was merely a reflection of the Sun. Jing Fang of the Han dynasty studied further about the spherical nature of the Moon.

          Indian astronomer Aryabhatta studied about the physical characteristics of the Moon. In Aryabhatiya, he notes that reflected sunlight is the cause of the shining of the Moon. The Arab astronomer Alhazen threw more light on the way the Moon reflected sunlight. He found that sunlight was not merely reflected from the Moon like a mirror, rather it was emitted from every part of the Moon’s sunlit surface in all directions.

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           The journey to the Moon had to be somehow made possible. This thought was the driving force behind all the studies about the Moon.

           The early developments were crucial in moulding the later growth. It all began thousands of years ago with sketching the Moon; humans began drawing pictures to track the changes of the Moon. Later, their observations of the Moon led to creating calendars.

           Understanding the Moon’s cycles was the earliest development in astronomy. Astronomers from India studied the monthly elongation of the Moon while the Babylonian astronomers worked towards finding formulas to predict the lunar eclipse. The Chinese astronomer Shi Shen is noted for his instructions for predicting solar and lunar eclipses. The Chinese also studied the physical form of the Moon, including moonlight and gravitational pull. There were also efforts to calculate the distance between the Earth and the Moon. However, the Moon was believed to be a sphere with a smooth surface before the invention of the telescope.

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          We are familiar with the word lunacy, which means madness. Did you know that this word comes from Luna, the Latin word for the Moon?

          There are many stories about mysterious events that happen during the full moon. This includes strange and violent behaviour of animals including wolves and dogs. It is believed that the full moon brings out the worst in humans and animals. However, there are no satisfactory scientific explanations for any of this, though there are some evidences about the lunar phases affecting the behaviour of birds, fish, insects and even mammals. It’s a growing research area now.

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          About 350 million years ago, a day on the Earth was around three hours shorter than today. The Earth slowed down because of the Moon. Aren’t you surprised?

          The Moon can slow down the Earth, even with its weak gravitational and magnetic field. This happens when there’s a force of friction between the surface of the Earth and the tidal bulges.

          During its rotation, the Earth drags the tidal bulge directly under the Moon. This causes friction between the Earth’s surface and the tidal bulge. The friction generated during this action slows down the rotation of the Earth on its axis. This results in a longer day and even a longer month.

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          The oceans and seas rise and fall at definite intervals. This rise and fall happens because of the gravitational force between the Earth and the Moon.

          We know that the Moon has a weak gravitational force. But it is strong enough to cause these periodic rises and falls known as tides.

          As our planet rotates, the Moon’s pull is exerted on different parts of the Earth. The Moon’s gravitational force exerts a pull on the oceans that generates tidal energy. It causes both the Earth and the oceans to bulge out in the direction of the Moon and away from it, and is known as tides. Because of the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, two tides occur each day- high tide and low tide.

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