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The current tools They allow to see the universe surrounding us with An unimaginable detail Just a few years ago, but humanity has millennia lifts the sky and wondering things. What we have closer is the moon, and almost a thousand years ago someone wondered why it shone as if it were an emergency light.
Today we have the answer. More or less.
Flash. Although we have always looked at the sky, it was not until 1608 when we could do it with some detail. At the same time, several lens manufacturers fought to become the Telescope inventorswhich was a tube with a convex lens as a goal, a concave as ocular and … it ends. In 1609, Galileo Galilei learned about the invention and decided to build his version, to which He took advantage of good.
Discovered the Jupiter satellites And, among many other things (dangerous for its time) He also documented lunar craters. In those first observations in more detail, astronomers began to wonder something: why do the moon emit flashes? What they probably did not know is that they were not the first to realize those fleeting lights.
Luna beats. Let’s go back half a millennium, until 1178, the year in which Canterbury Gervasioa monk, wrote The following: “On the afternoon of June 18, 1178, after sunset, when the moon had just become visible, a wonderful phenomenon was witnessed by five men or more. There was a bright new moon, their horns were inclined to the east and sudden sparks ”.
He continued: “Meanwhile, the body of the moon, which was below, twisted, so to speak, with anxiety … the moon throbbed as a wounded snake. Then, it recovered its usual state. This phenomenon was repeated a dozen times or more, adopting the flame various random twisted forms. After these transformations, the moon, from horn to horn … acquired a blackish appearance”
What does this say? “The author of this letter received this report from men who saw him with his own eyes, and are willing to put his honor under oath that they have not added or falsified anything in the previous story.” Quiet, Gervasio, we believe you. What he described is Know Like TLP, ‘Transient lunar phenomena“or” transient lunar phenomena. “
This is something that has fascinated astronomers for centuries, and basically it is flashes, brightness located somewhere in the lunar surface or even darkening of it. Its duration is brief, and there are several theories.
Riddled. One of them points, directly, to the constant meteorite bombardment experienced by the satellite. It is the explanation most supported by evidence, and it makes all the meaning. It is estimated that the moon receives the direct impact of tens of thousands of meteorites every year. NASA Calculate That 33,000 meteorites hit the moon every year, with about 100 the size of a Pinpong ball reaching its surface with a force equivalent to about 3.2 kilos of dynamite.
Studies like Neliota They have achieved relate Those impacts to the flashes we see from Earth. The frequency is about eight flashes per hour, but in times when there is a greater meteoric activity, the figure increases to twelve per hour.
Impacts on the moon collected by Neliota and related to ‘flashazos’
Alternatives. There are currents of alternative thinking that relate these ‘flashazos’ with gas emissions of the lunar subsoil -as they can be radon emanationsgas that has a presence in the satellite- or by geological fluctuations. The bombardment remains the most accepted theory, but there are ‘flashazos’ than They would not be related With impacts.
Whatever it is, and if that English monk of 850 years ago could find out about this, it would surely feel relieved to know that those beats of the moon, those palpitations as a wounded snake, were not the product of their imagination.
Images | University of CanterburyNASA, THAT
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