"The moon is the Rosetta stone of the planets." - Robert Jastrow, First Chairman, NASA Lunar Exploration Committee.
After six moon landings and hundreds of experiments, after hundreds of years studying our closest neighbour the results have raised more questions than they have answered.
Some interesting facts about the Moon:
Moon's Age: The moon is far older than previously expected. Maybe even older than the Earth or the Sun. The oldest age for the Earth is estimated to be 4.6 billion years old; moon rocks were dated at 5.3 billion years old, and the dust upon which they were resting was at least another billion years older.
Rock's Origin: The chemical composition of the dust upon which the rocks sat differed remarkably from the rocks themselves, contrary to accepted theories that the dust resulted from weathering and breakup of the rocks themselves. The rocks had to have come from somewhere else.
Heavier Elements on Surface: Normal planetary composition results in heavier elements in the core and lighter materials at the surface; not so with the moon.
Water Vapor: On March 7, 1971, lunar instruments placed by the astronauts recorded a vapor cloud of water passing across the surface of the moon. The cloud lasted 14 hours and covered an area of about 100 square miles.
Magnetic Rocks: Moon rocks were magnetized. This is odd because there is no magnetic field on the moon itself. This could not have originated from a "close call" with Earth - such an encounter would have ripped the moon apart.
No Volcanoes: Some of the moon's craters originated internally, yet there is no indication that the moon was ever hot enough to produce volcanic eruptions.
Seismic Activity: Hundreds of "moonquakes" are recorded each year that cannot be attributed to meteor strikes. In November, 1958, Soviet astronomer Nikolay A. Kozyrev of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory photographed a gaseous eruption of the moon near the crater Alphonsus. He also detected a reddish glow that lasted for about an hour.
In 1963, astronomers at the Lowell Observatory also saw reddish glows on the crests of ridges in the Aristarchus region. These observations have proved to be precisely identical and periodical, repeating themselves as the moon moves closer to the Earth. These are probably not natural phenomena.
Hollow Moon: The moon's mean density is 3.34 gm/cm3 (3.34 times an equal volume of water) whereas the Earth's is 5.5. What does this mean?
In 1962, NASA scientist Dr. Gordon MacDonald stated, "If the astronomical data are reduced, it is found that the data require that the interior of the moon is more like a hollow than a homogeneous sphere."
Nobel chemist Dr. Harold Urey suggested the moon's reduced density is because of large areas inside the moon where is "simply a cavity."
MIT's Dr. Sean C. Solomon wrote, "the Lunar Orbiter experiments vastly improved our knowledge of the moon's gravitational field... indicating the frightening possibility that the moon might be hollow."
In Carl Sagan's treatise, Intelligent Life in the Universe, the famous astronomer stated, "A natural satellite cannot be a hollow object."
Moon Echoes: On November 20, 1969, the Apollo 12 crew jettisoned the lunar module ascent stage causing it to crash onto the moon. The LM's impact (about 40 miles from the Apollo 12 landing site) created an artificial moonquake with startling characteristics - the moon reverberated like a bell for more than an hour.
This phenomenon was repeated with Apollo 13 (intentionally commanding the third stage to impact the moon), with even more startling results.
Seismic instruments recorded that the reverberations lasted for three hours and twenty minutes and traveled to a depth of twenty-five miles, leading to the conclusion that the moon has an unusually light - or even no - core.
Unusual Metals: The moon's crust is much harder than presumed. Remember the extreme difficulty the astronauts encountered when they tried to drill into the maria?
Surprise! The maria is composed primarily illeminite, a mineral containing large amounts of titanium, the same metal used to fabricate the hulls of deep-diving submarines.
Uranium 236 and neptunium 237 (elements not found in nature on Earth) were discovered in lunar rocks, as were rustproof iron particles.
Moon's Origin: Before the astronauts' moon rocks conclusively disproved the theory, the moon was believed to have originated when a chunk of Earth broke off eons ago (who knows from where?).
Another theory was that the moon was created from leftover "space dust" remaining after the Earth was created. Analysis of the composition of moon rocks disproved this theory also.
Another popular theory is that the moon was somehow "captured" by the Earth's gravitational attraction. But no evidence exists to support this theory.
Isaac Asimov, stated, "It's too big to have been captured by the Earth. The chances of such a capture having been effected and the moon then having taken up nearly circular orbit around our Earth are too small to make such an eventuality credible."
Weird Orbit: Our moon is the only moon in the solar system that has a stationary, near-perfect circular orbit.
Stranger still, the moon's center of mass is about 6000 feet closer to the Earth than its geometric center (which should cause wobbling), but the moon's bulge is on the far side of the moon, away from the Earth.
"Something" had to put the moon in orbit with its precise altitude, course, and speed.
Moon Diameter: How does one explain the "coincidence" that the moon is just the right distance, coupled with just the right diameter, to completely cover the sun during an eclipse?
Again, Isaac Asimov responds, "There is no astronomical reason why the moon and the sun should fit so well. It is the sheerest of coincidences, and only the Earth among all the planets is blessed in this fashion."
Spaceship Moon: As outrageous as the Moon-Is-a-Spaceship Theory is, all of the above items are resolved if one assumes that the moon is a gigantic extraterrestrial craft, brought here eons ago by intelligent beings.
This is the only theory that is supported by all of the data, and there are no data that contradict this theory.
Greek authors Aristotle and Plutarch, and Roman authors Apolllonius Rhodius and Ovid all wrote of a group of people called the Proselenes who lived in the central mountainous area of Greece called Arcadia.
The Proselenes claimed title to this area because their forebears were there "before there was a moon in the heavens."
This claim is substantiated by symbols on the wall of the Courtyard of Kalasasaya, near the city of Tiahuanaco, Bolivia, which record that the moon came into orbit around the Earth between 11,500 and 13, 000 years ago, long before recorded history.
In conclusion, there is no argument that no-one really knows what or how the moon was formed. But the facts surrounding it are certainly anomalous. So next time you see the moon in the sky, pause and think about it for a minute. The biggest mystery is on our cosmic doorstep.
Original source post: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/luna/esp_luna_16.htm - Ronald Regehr