Something's happening with the moon <<Slipping softly through the sky
Little horned, happy moon, Can you hear me up so high?
Will you come down soon?>> -Amy Lowell, from “The Crescent Moon”
The moon, what an inspiring and romantic satellite!
Can you imagine your life without the moon? It has been there for mankind ever since,
and we still enjoy its presence, whether it shows in the night sky or during the daylight hours.
Sometimes it seems so close to Earth that we think we can almost touch it or steal it from the sky.
But the truth is we can't. The truth is that the moon keeps some secrets,
and that's why, in the first place, we sent robotic spacecraft to visit her.
But we weren't satisfied, so we decided to send HUMANS on its surface.
It happened some years ago. In doing this, we inspired future generations,
worked together and, most of all, we unveiled some of the Moon's deepest secrets.
But there's still so much left. It's gonna take some time to have
a complete understanding of what happened and what's happening with our satellite.
In this new video, we will see that the Moon puzzle is missing some pieces.
We will talk about Flashes of lights on its surface: where do they come from?
What do studies suggest? Let's go.
Even though it’s so close and has been visited by both robotic spacecraft and human astronauts,
the moon is still a very mysterious place. As we've already said in the intro,
there are a lot of things we still don’t know about our nearby neighbour.
For example, astronomers noted unusual flashes of light and other phenomena happening on the
surface of the Moon. What causes them?
The amazing thing here is that these brief light displays, known today as
Transient Lunar Phenomena, or TLP,
have actually been seen for centuries! Along with flashes, TLP has been reported as
gaseous mists, reddish, green, blue or violet colourations, other brightening
and even darkenings. There are currently two comprehensive catalogues, one of which has
2,254 events going back to the sixth century. Here are some pieces of evidence from the centuries.
On June 18, 1178, five or more monks from Canterbury
reported an upheaval on the Moon shortly after sunset. Here's what they reported:
"There was a bright new moon, and as usual in that phase, its horns were tilted toward the east;
and suddenly the upper horn split in two. From the midpoint of this division, a flaming torch
sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals, and sparks.
Meanwhile, the body of the moon which was below writhed, as it were, in anxiety, and,
to put it in the words of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes,
the moon throbbed like a wounded snake. Afterwards, it resumed its proper state.
This phenomenon was repeated a dozen times or more, the flame assuming various twisting shapes
at random and then returning to normal. Then after these transformations the moon from horn to horn,
that is along its whole length, took on a blackish appearance."
Someone proposed that this described the formation of the Giordano Bruno crater. However,
more recent studies suggest that it appears very unlikely the 1178 event was related to the
formation of Crater Giordano Bruno. No accounts of such a memorable storm have been found in any
known historical records, including several astronomical archives from around the world.
In light of this, it is suspected that the group of monks (the event's only known witnesses)
saw the atmospheric explosion of a directly oncoming meteor in chance alignment,
from their specific vantage point, with the far more distant Moon.
More realistic and well-documented descriptions of the events come from Sir William Herschel,
a famous astronomer that, in 1787, noticed three red glowing spots on the dark part of the moon.
In 1881 instead, Arthur Stanley Williams, an amateur astronomer,
noticed some sort of “phosphorescent glow on the shadowed southern part of the walled plain Plato.
Also in 1963 at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, astronomers manually recorded very bright red,
orange, and pink colour phenomena on the southwest side of Cobra Head depression.
And, for example, during the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, astronauts observed a bright
flash-like phenomenon north of crater Grimaldi, while in orbit around the moon.
These were just a few of the observations made during the centuries.
But, even if we have a lot of observations and many notes were taken regarding these phenomena,
they are still far to be entirely explained.
But recently a Deutch professor announced that he is trying to figure out, at least,
what is creating these intriguing lunar phenomena.
His name is Hakan Kayal, and he is a Professor of Space Technology n Bavaria, Germany.
He wants to try to find the explanation(s) for these odd light phenomena.
That's why he and his team have built a new telescope in a private observatory in Spain
and started lunar observations in April 2019. They choose a rural area about 60 miles north
of Seville, a perfect place to do astronomy and relaxing, far from light pollution – which made
it a perfect area of observation. As Hakan himself said:
“There are simply better weather conditions for observing the moon than in Germany!”
But this is not a usual telescope. Let's see how it works and what it is capable of.
1) Two cameras have been installed on the telescope, which is
remote-controlled from the campus in Germany. 2) If a flash or other light source is detected,
the cameras will trigger other actions from the telescope, but
only if both cameras make the detection. 3) Photos and videos are automatically
taken and recorded, and an email is sent to Kayal and his team.
4) The software is used at Kayal and his team’s telescope is still being refined.
It will also incorporate artificial intelligence, because they want the system to
gradually learn to distinguish a moon flash from, for example,
objects such as birds and aeroplanes passing in front of the cameras or technical faults.
Now, one could think about SpaceX Starlink satellites.
Will the telescope be able to get rid of their disturbing light?
Kayal said reducing false alarms is a key objective.
So maybe in the future, we could use the same kind of cameras on a satellite orbiting Earth,
where there is no interference from Earth’s atmosphere or with Starlink satellites.
5) One of the biggest advantages of this telescope, is that when a flash or
other luminous phenomenon is detected, those results can then be compared to those from other
telescopes used by the European Space Agency. This is a really important thing because if
the same observation was seen there, the event can be considered confirmed.
Now that we've seen how the telescope works, we should spend some more words about TLP.
What are the possible explanations for them? I'm sure you can't wait to know.
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We could start by saying that one problem with finding explanations
is that most reports are made by only one observer or from a single location on Earth.
This makes verification very difficult because the more observers see the same thing, the more
detailed description we have, the more likely we can say the event had actually taken place.
That said, current theories include outgassing, impact events,
electrostatic phenomena, and unfavourable observation conditions in Earth’s atmosphere.
The gas flows are a particularly promising candidate to explain the moon flashes.
We know the moon repeatedly undergoes seismic activity.
That's how the gas could escape from the interior of the moon. If some gas is able to reach the
surface, and if the sun's rays hit the outflowing gas formations, they could reflect the incident
light and cause the breathtaking spectacles that have kept us in suspense for countless centuries.
Also, it's probable that some of the moon flashes are caused by meteorite impacts.
One such likely event was seen on the night of January 20-21, 2019,
when a meteorite hit the moon’s surface during a total lunar eclipse.
It was caught in photos and on video as well as being seen by people just watching
the eclipse. It was the first known instance of such a flash occurring during an eclipse!
Anyway, we'd probably have to wait sometime before hearing about Kayal studies results.
Currently, observations of TLP are being coordinated by the Association
of Lunar and Planetary Observers and the British Astronomical Association.
Although the Transient Lunar Phenomena is a mystery far from being solved,
one thing seems pretty clear: there is likely more than just one cause of them.
For example, meteorite impacts are a beautiful and simple solution,
but they can't explain all the reported sightings.
Interest in the lunar luminous phenomena is currently high. This is also due to a new
"race to the moon" that is underway: China has started a lunar program, launching a probe in
January 2019 on the far side of the moon. India is also planning a similar mission.
As a reaction to these initiatives, America spoke of a return of the USA to the moon.
Behind all these activities are of course prestige reasons and a striving for technological
“supremacy" in space. China and other players such as Space X, however, are also considering
the moon as a habitat for humans in the long term. In addition, there are raw materials
on the moon – for example, rare metals that are needed for smartphones and other devices.
"Anyone who wants to build a lunar base at some point must of course be familiar with the local
conditions," says Professor Kayal. What if such plans should ever become concrete? By then at the
latest, it should be clear what the mysterious flashes and luminous phenomena are all about.
Kayal's thinks the project is crucial because humans need to understand the regions
where they hope to eventually live. Let’s get to know the neighbourhood
before we buy a house there, in other words. Transient Lunar Phenomena have intrigued
professional and amateur astronomers for centuries. Now that you know about their
existence, what do you think about them? Do you think we will be lucky enough to find a plausible
explanation for them in the upcoming years? Pssst! Someone thinks that could be aliens!
"This video ends here! Thanks for watching everyone!
See you on the channel, and remember to stay curious!