Our night star is running away from us - into space. This is evidenced by the latest data from laser ranging of the lunar surface. True, this flight happens very slowly, only by a few centimeters a year, but the very fact of the inexorable distance of the Moon from the Earth is alarming.
After all, millions of years will pass, and the lunar tides in the earth's seas and oceans will gradually stop. Then total solar eclipses will disappear, as well as space harbors in the "points of libration", where the attraction of the Earth and the Moon is equal. This threatens a number of projects to create space colonies there with artificial gravity and giant telescopes.
Well, in the end, catastrophic phenomena with the Earth's axis of rotation may begin …
Collision hypothesis
The Hubble and Kepler space telescopes have already discovered more than a thousand other worlds, but none of them even remotely resembles the inner part of our solar system. Who can you not meet in this "space zoo of heavenly bodies."
"Hot" Jupiters and Saturns, colossal "super-Earths", brown dwarfs of unborn stars … But there is no similarity between the Earth and the Moon in the "region of life" of a moderate luminary such as a "yellow dwarf".
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All this makes us think once again about the uniqueness of not only earthly civilization, but also carbon-protein life in general. At the very least, this may be completely true in the galactic expanses of the Milky Way. This is precisely the conclusion that the outstanding Soviet astronomer Joseph Shklovsky came to in his last years.
The super-unique nature of our cosmic home began to form from the very beginning of the existence of the solar system. Then a series of cosmic catastrophes occurred, in one of which an unknown planet the size of Mars or even larger hit the young Earth.
From the fragments of this collision, the Moon could arise. Debates on this issue have been going on for a very long time, and Venus, Mercury, and fantastic planets like Nibiru and Phaethon were nominated for the role of a partner in the colossal planetary "crash test".
Theia - Selena's progenitor
Although the size, speed and “route of movement” of this mysterious celestial body are still unknown, astronomers have already named it Teia. Probably, it was still moving relatively slowly, otherwise another asteroid belt would simply have arisen in the earth's orbit.
Such a collision sharply increased the temperature of both bodies, and as a result, most of the material of the impacting object and part of the material of the earth's mantle were thrown into near-earth orbit. From these debris the Moon was formed.
From this it follows that in its chemical composition the Moon should resemble a mixture of substances from the Earth and Theia. However, the Moon, unlike the Earth, is deficient in iron. At the same time, the isotopes of oxygen and titanium on the Earth and on the Moon are practically identical. Scientists cannot come to a consensus on how this can be explained.
Recent results of computer simulations have greatly changed the generally accepted picture of a cosmic cataclysm. It turned out that Theia could be quite impressive in size, more than twice the size of Mars and moving at high speed. But the impact itself fell not on the center of the Earth, but at an angle to it.
In such a collision scenario, Theia would have lost negligible mass and would have ended up in the Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud, on the very outskirts of the solar system.
Life-giving night star
The great mystery of the origin of life on our planet has not yet been solved by modern science, and many scientists are sure that it is necessary to take into account the "lunar factor" here. The first unicellular organisms arose about 3.5 billion years ago, when the moon was much closer to the earth's surface, causing the strongest waves of ebbs and flows.
Due to this, the emerging World Ocean swept over vast areas of land, washing out a variety of mineral substances and leaving behind shallow warm lagoons with mineralized moisture. So, according to the theory of Academician Oparin, a primitive "soup" arose, where the first cells of life were born. Subsequent ebbs and flows all the time expanded their habitat, splashing out "spores of life" on the wet shores of the land.
The lunar "tidal brake" gradually slows down the rotation of our planet, lengthening the Earth's day by almost a couple of seconds every 100 millennia. Even 600 million years ago, a day on the planet lasted only three hours, as evidenced by the ebb and flow traces preserved on the oldest rocks.
It turns out that 4.5 billion years ago, immediately after the catastrophic collision, the Moon was only 25 thousand kilometers from the earth's surface. It was a truly enchanting picture, because even today, when the night luminary has retired almost 400 thousand kilometers, the beauty of full moons is unique.
Among other things, the moon played the role of a clock and a calendar for ancient man. The regular phases of the moon allowed the most ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia to create the first lunar calendars and divide the year into 12 months. After all, all phases from new moon to full moon and back take exactly 29.5 days.
Jacques Lascard's catastrophic theory
At the end of the last century, a group of astronomers from the Paris Observatory, led by the famous planetary scientist Jacques Lascard, came to a sensational conclusion about the role of the moon in earthly life. French scientists have found that our satellite plays the most important role of the "cosmic horoscope", stabilizing the tilt of the Earth's axis of rotation.
Today, the angle of inclination of the earth's axis to its orbital plane (astronomers say - to the plane of the ecliptic) is 23.5 °. This is a very important value, because it determines the change of seasons. It is especially significant that this angle is practically constant and changes only by a maximum of a couple of degrees during the 40-thousand-year cycle.
According to Laskar's theory, in the absence of the Moon, the gravitational effects of the gas giant Jupiter could quickly upset this delicate equilibrium. Our planet would literally "tumble" in orbit, and its axis of rotation would write out chaotic figures, changing its direction from 0 to 85 °.
It is difficult even to imagine how such a change of the poles and the equator affected the habitat. If anything, it should have caused catastrophic climate change. Most likely, the earth's surface would be covered with an ice shell every few million years, as happened in the Northern Hemisphere during the ice ages.
Naturally, this would have the most negative impact on the evolution of flora and fauna (if they had arisen at all) and would certainly have excluded the emergence of highly organized organisms, not to mention intelligent beings.
As a proof of his constructions, Laskar cites lifeless Mars, which, probably, became a victim of the "gravitational impacts" of Jupiter.
Science fiction and reality
It is impossible to overestimate the cultural influence of our "night star". Another great astronomer of the 17th century, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, Johannes Kepler, in his fantastic work "Dream", spoke about the trip to the moon from the point of view of science of that time.
Moon dwellers
Later, the earthlings were sent to the satellite by Jules Verne ("From the Earth to the Moon in a direct way in 97 hours and 20 minutes") and Herbert Wells ("The First People on the Moon"). Well, the first scientific description of travel on the lunar surface "On the Moon" belongs to the "father of cosmonautics" Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935).
All this was accompanied by curious curiosities. Thus, in the summer of 1822, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Munich Franz Paula von Gruytuisen (1774-1852) reported the discovery of the ruins of the "city" near the Schreter crater. This lunar formation was somewhat reminiscent of fragments of a spider web with low, straight ramparts diverging at a 45-degree angle and connected by bridges.
At the end of the network, the astronomer even saw some "ruins of a citadel." It is not surprising that against the background of such "sensational reports", the New York newspaper "Sun" published in August 1835 a series of essays with fantastic illustrations about the discovery of the lunar civilization, allegedly made by the famous astronomer John Herschel. The publication went down in history as the "Great Moon Swindle" or "Moon Duck".
Over the past centuries, astronomers have become completely disillusioned with lunar life, but they have found many anomalies, which have been cataloged as "short-term lunar phenomena" (CLA). Here you can find "changes in the appearance, color, clarity and brightness of relief details", "flashes, the appearance and disappearance of dark spots", as well as all kinds of non-commercial organizations (unidentified space objects) moving above the moon.
Moreover, for half a century, the hypothesis of the artificial origin of the moon has been circulating in the ufological environment. The arrival of this satellite ship is associated with a number of biological disasters in the history of the Earth, considering them as "purposeful natural disasters" designed to help humanity enter the historical arena.
And here is how ufologists describe the structure of an artificial colossus: “Inside the Moon, under the metal hull, there should be a fairly significant free space intended for mechanisms serving the movement and repair of a space supership, devices for external observations, some structures that ensure the connection of the armor plating with the inner content of the Moon. It is possible that 70-80% of the Moon's mass, located in its depths behind the "service belt", is the "payload" of the ship. Guesses about its content and purpose go beyond reasonable assumptions."
Oleg FAYG
