Moon and Regulus

The Moon has had a busy social calendar this week. It’s had meet-and-greets with the twins of Gemini and the planets Mars and Jupiter. And it has one more engagement tomorrow. Regulus, the heart of the lion, will stand above the Moon at dawn. In centuries past, people took a more literal view of lunar social activities. Many thought the Moon was inhabited – including some astronomers. In 1778, for example, William Herschel reported seeing towns on the lunar surface. Herschel was one of the top astronomers of the time – he discovered the planet Uranus – so people took him seriously. The idea of lunar life was especially common in the 19th century. In 1835, the New York Sun published a series describing a world teeming with life, including a civilization of “bat people.” The Sun attributed the discoveries to Herschel’s son, John – another famous astronomer. The whole thing was a hoax. But the idea of lunar life was so ingrained that the public ate it up. In 1838, another writer described seeing structures built by “lunarians.” And in 1901, H.G. Wells wrote about intelligent life in “The First Men in the Moon” – a race of insect-like creatures called Selenites. Today, we know that the Moon is devoid of life – at least for now. China and the U.S. have plans to establish permanent outposts on the Moon in the decades ahead – “lunarians” from right here on Earth. Script by Damond Benningfield