There's a moon mystery that's been visible from Earth for
500 years?and astronomers still haven't figured it out.
Mark Pilkington writes in The Guardian that in 1540, before
the first telescope was invented, stargazers in the German
city of Worms saw a star-like object appear on the moon. In
1650, the Polish astronomer Hevelius noted the appearance of
a "red hill" in the north-western moon area, and in April
1787, astronomer Sir William Herschel saw so many red lights
in this same crater that he thought he there must be a
volcano on the moon. NASA has also recorded hundreds of
light flashes, glows, mists, unusual shapes and shadows, all
in the same area. They are known as Transient Lunar
Phenomena (TLP)?but nobody knows what they are.
Some astronomers claim they're optical illusions generated
by telescopes. But in July, 1969, Apollo 11 entered lunar
orbit and sent back images of a bright TLP. When he was
asked to check it out, Neil Armstrong saw an unusual
illumination in the same crater.
But most astronomers don't think there are volcanoes on the
moon. In 1963, Zdenek Kopal saw a significant TLP event
during a major solar flare. He thinks particles thrown off
by solar flares cause moon rocks to glow.
In 1992, Audouin Dollfus saw glowing clouds of moon dust,
which was thrown up by emissions of underground gas. The
crater on that part of the moon's surface is cracked, and
radon gas was detected there during the Apollo missions.
These "moon burps" could be the source of the mysterious
moon lights.
Since we will probably eventually colonize the moon in order
to mine its valuable helium-3 fuel, we need to be prepared.
Linda Howe is Dreamland's expert on
mysterious
lights.
For more information, click here.
