In 1609, after the invention of the telescope, humanity was able to examine its space satellite for the first time in detail. Since then, the Moon has been the most studied cosmic body, as well as the first one that a person managed to visit.

The first thing to be dealt with is what is our satellite? The answer is unexpected: although the Moon is considered a satellite, technically it is the same full-fledged planet as the Earth. She has big sizes- 3476 kilometers across at the equator - and a mass of 7.347 × 10 22 kilograms; The moon is only slightly inferior to, the smallest planet in the solar system. All this makes it a full-fledged participant in the Moon-Earth gravitational system.

Another such tandem is also known in solar system, and Charon. Although the entire mass of our satellite is a little more than a hundredth of the mass of the Earth, the Moon does not revolve around the Earth itself - they have common center masses. And the proximity of the satellite to us gives rise to another interesting effect, tidal capture. Because of it, the Moon is always turned to the Earth with the same side.

Moreover, from the inside, the Moon is arranged as a full-fledged planet - it has a crust, a mantle and even a core, and volcanoes existed on it in the distant past. However, nothing remains of the ancient landscapes - over the course of four and a half billion years of the Moon's history, millions of tons of meteorites and asteroids fell on it, which furrowed it, leaving craters. Some blows were so strong that they broke through her bark right down to her mantle. The pits from such collisions formed the lunar seas, dark spots on the Moon, which are easily distinguishable from. Moreover, they are present exclusively on the visible side. Why? We will talk about this further.

Among the cosmic bodies, the Moon influences the Earth the most - except, perhaps, the Sun. Lunar tides that regularly raise the water level in the world's oceans - the most obvious, but not the most strong impact satellite. So, gradually moving away from the Earth, the Moon slows down the rotation of the planet - a sunny day has grown from the original 5 to the modern 24 hours. And the satellite also serves as a natural barrier against hundreds of meteorites and asteroids, intercepting them on approach to the Earth.

And without a doubt, the Moon is a tasty object for astronomers: both amateurs and professionals. Although the distance to the Moon has been measured to the nearest meter using laser technology, and soil samples from it have been repeatedly brought to Earth, there is still room for discoveries. For example, scientists are hunting for lunar anomalies - mysterious flashes and auroras on the surface of the moon, not all of which have an explanation. It turns out that our satellite hides much more than what is visible on the surface - let's figure out the secrets of the moon together!

Topographic map of the moon

Characteristics of the Moon

The scientific study of the moon is over 2200 years old today. The movement of a satellite in the sky of the Earth, the phases and distance from it to the Earth were described in detail by the ancient Greeks - and internal structure The moon and its history are being explored to this day by spacecraft. Nevertheless, centuries of work by philosophers, and then by physicists and mathematicians, have provided very accurate data about how our Moon looks and moves, and why it is the way it is. All information about the satellite can be divided into several categories, mutually following from each other.

Orbital characteristics of the Moon

How does the moon move around the earth? If our planet were motionless, the satellite would rotate in an almost perfect circle, from time to time slightly approaching and moving away from the planet. But after all, the Earth itself around the Sun - the Moon has to constantly "catch up" with the planet. And our Earth is not the only body with which our satellite interacts. The Sun, which is 390 times farther from the Earth than the Moon, is 333,000 times more massive than the Earth. And even taking into account the inverse square law, according to which the intensity of any energy source drops sharply with distance, the Sun attracts the Moon 2.2 times stronger than the Earth!

Therefore, the final trajectory of our satellite resembles a spiral, and even a difficult one. The axis of the lunar orbit fluctuates, the Moon itself periodically approaches and moves away, and in global scale and completely flies away from the Earth. The same oscillations lead to the fact that the visible side of the Moon is not the same hemisphere of the satellite, but its different parts, which alternately turn towards the Earth due to the "swaying" of the satellite in orbit. These movements of the Moon in longitude and latitude are called librations, and allow you to look beyond the far side of our satellite long before the first flyby of spacecraft. From east to west, the Moon rotates 7.5 degrees, and from north to south - 6.5. Therefore, from the Earth it is easy to see both poles of the Moon.

Specific orbital characteristics Moons are useful not only for astronomers and astronauts - for example, photographers especially appreciate the supermoon: the phase of the moon in which it reaches its maximum size. This is a full moon during which the moon is at perigee. Here are the main parameters of our satellite:

• The Moon's orbit is elliptical, its deviation from a perfect circle is about 0.049. Considering orbital fluctuations, minimum distance the satellite to the Earth (perigee) leaves 362 thousand kilometers, and the maximum (apogee) - 405 thousand kilometers.
• The common center of mass of the Earth and the Moon is located 4.5 thousand kilometers from the center of the Earth.
• Sidereal month - full walkthrough The moon in its orbit - passes in 27.3 days. However, for full turn around the earth and change lunar phases it takes 2.2 days more - after all, during the time that the Moon goes in its orbit, the Earth flies by the thirteenth part own orbit around the sun!
• The moon is in a tidal lock on the Earth - it rotates around its axis at the same speed as around the Earth. Because of this, the Moon is constantly turned to the Earth by the same side. This condition is typical for satellites that are very close to the planet.

• Night and day on the Moon are very long - half an Earth month.
• During those periods when the moon comes out from behind the globe, it is visible in the sky - the shadow of our planet gradually slides off the satellite, allowing the Sun to illuminate it, and then closes it back. Changes in the illumination of the Moon, visible from the Earth, are called her. During the new moon, the satellite is not visible in the sky, in the phase of the young moon its thin crescent appears, resembling a curl of the letter “P”, in the first quarter the moon is exactly half lit, and during the full moon it is noticeably best. Further phases - the second quarter and the old moon - occur in reverse order.

An interesting fact: since the lunar month is shorter than the calendar month, sometimes there can be two full moons in one month - the second is called the “blue moon”. It is as bright as an ordinary full - it illuminates the Earth at 0.25 lux (for example, normal lighting inside a house is 50 lux). The Earth itself illuminates the Moon 64 times stronger - as much as 16 lux. Of course, all the light is not your own, but reflected sunlight.

• The Moon's orbit is inclined to the plane of the Earth's orbit and crosses it regularly. The inclination of the satellite is constantly changing, varying between 4.5° and 5.3°. It takes more than 18 years to change the inclination of the moon.
• The moon moves around the earth at a speed of 1.02 km/s. This is much less than the speed of the Earth around the Sun - 29.7 km / s. Max Speed spacecraft, achieved by the probe for the study of the Sun "Helios-B", was 66 kilometers per second.

Physical parameters of the Moon and its composition

In order to understand how big the Moon is and what it consists of, it took people a long time. Only in 1753, the scientist R. Boskovic managed to prove that the Moon does not have a significant atmosphere, as well as liquid seas - when covered by the Moon, the stars disappear instantly, when the presence would make it possible to observe their gradual “fading”. It took another 200 years for soviet station Luna 13 in 1966 measured mechanical properties surface of the moon. And nothing was known about the far side of the Moon until 1959, when the Luna-3 apparatus failed to take its first pictures.

The crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft brought the first samples to the surface in 1969. They also became the first people to walk on the moon - until 1972, 6 ships landed on it, and 12 astronauts landed. The reliability of these flights was often doubted - however, many points of criticism came from their ignorance in space affairs. American flag, which, according to the assurances of conspiracy theorists, “could not flutter in airless space Moon", in fact, solid and static - it was specially reinforced with solid threads. This was done specifically to make beautiful pictures - the sagging canvas is not so spectacular.

Many of the distortions in colors and landforms in the reflections on the helmets of the spacesuits in which counterfeiting was sought were due to the gold plating on the UV-protective glass. Soviet cosmonauts, who watched the broadcast of the landing of the astronauts in real time, also confirmed the authenticity of what was happening. And who can deceive an expert in his field?

A complete geological and topographic maps our satellite are compiled to date. In 2009 space station LRO (eng. "Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter", Lunar Orbital Probe) not only delivered the most detailed images of the Moon in history, but also proved the presence of a large amount of frozen water on it. He also put an end to the debate about whether there were people on the moon by filming the traces of the Apollo team from low orbit of the moon. The device was equipped with equipment from several countries of the world, including Russia.

As new space nations like China and private companies get involved in lunar exploration, new data is coming in every day. We have collected the main parameters of our satellite:

• The surface area of ​​the Moon is 37.9 x 10 6 square kilometers - about 0.07% of the total area of ​​the Earth. Incredibly, this is only 20% more than the area of ​​​​all human-inhabited areas on our planet!
• The average density of the Moon is 3.4 g/cm3. She is 40% less density Earth - primarily due to the fact that the satellite is deprived of many heavy elements like iron, which our planet is rich in. In addition, 2% of the mass of the Moon is regolith - a small crumb of stone created by cosmic erosion and meteorite impacts, the density of which is lower than ordinary rock. Its thickness in some places reaches tens of meters!
• Everyone knows that the moon is much smaller than Earth, which affects its gravity. Acceleration free fall on it is 1.63 m / s 2 - only 16.5 percent of the entire force of gravity of the Earth. The astronauts' jumps on the moon were very high, even though their spacesuits weighed 35.4 kilograms - almost like knightly armor! At the same time, they were still holding back: falling in a vacuum was quite dangerous. Below is a video of the astronaut jumping from a live broadcast.

• The lunar seas cover about 17% of the entire moon - mostly its visible side, which is almost a third covered by them. They are traces of impacts of especially heavy meteorites, which literally tore off its crust from the satellite. In these places, only a thin, half-kilometer layer of hardened lava - basalt - separates the surface from the Moon's mantle. Since closer to the center of any large cosmic body, the concentration solids is growing, there is more metal in the lunar seas than anywhere else on the Moon.
• The main landform of the Moon is craters and other derivatives of impacts and shock waves, which is a steroid. Lunar mountains and circuses were built huge and changed the structure of the surface of the moon beyond recognition. Their role was especially strong at the beginning of the history of the Moon, when it was still liquid - the falls raised whole waves of molten stone. This was the reason for the formation moon seas: the side facing the Earth was hotter due to the concentration of heavy substances, due to which the asteroids affected it more than the cool reverse side. The reason for this uneven distribution of matter was the attraction of the Earth, especially strong at the beginning of the moon's history, when it was closer.

• In addition to craters, mountains and seas, there are caves and cracks in the moon - surviving witnesses of those times when the bowels of the moon were as hot as they were, and volcanoes acted on it. These caves often contain water ice, as are the craters at the poles, which is why they are often considered as sites for future lunar bases.
• The real color of the Moon's surface is very dark, closer to black. All over the moon come across the most different colors- from turquoise blue to almost orange. The light gray hue of the Moon from the Earth and in the pictures is due to the high illumination of the Moon by the Sun. Due to the dark color, the surface of the satellite reflects only 12% of all rays falling from our star. If the moon were brighter - and during full moons it would be as bright as day.

How was the moon formed?

The study of the minerals of the Moon and its history is one of the most difficult disciplines for scientists. The surface of the moon is open to cosmic rays, and there is nothing to hold back the heat near the surface - therefore, the satellite heats up to 105 ° C during the day, and cools down to -150 ° C at night. The two-week duration of day and night increases the effect on the surface - and as a result, the minerals of the Moon change beyond recognition with time. However, we managed to find out something.

Today, the Moon is believed to be the product of a collision between a large planetary embryo, Theia, and the Earth, which occurred billions of years ago when our planet was completely molten. Part of the planet that collided with us (and it was the size of ) was absorbed - but its core, along with part of the surface matter of the Earth, was thrown into orbit by inertia, where it remained in the form of the Moon.

This proves the deficiency of iron and other metals already mentioned above on the Moon - by the time Theia pulled out a piece terrestrial matter, most of the heavy elements of our planet were pulled inward by gravity, to the core. This collision affected further development Earth - it began to rotate faster, and its axis of rotation tilted, which made it possible to change the seasons.

Further, the Moon developed as an ordinary planet - it formed an iron core, mantle, crust, lithospheric plates and even its own atmosphere. However, the small mass and poor heavy elements composition led to the fact that the bowels of our satellite quickly cooled down, and the atmosphere evaporated from high temperature and the absence of a magnetic field. However, some processes are still taking place inside - due to movements in the lithosphere of the Moon, moonquakes sometimes occur. They represent one of the main dangers for future colonizers of the Moon: their scope reaches 5 and a half points on the Richter scale, and they last much longer than the earth's - there is no ocean capable of absorbing the impulse of the movement of the earth's interior.

Main chemical elements on the Moon it is silicon, aluminium, calcium and magnesium. The minerals that form these elements are similar to those of the earth and are even found on our planet. However, the main difference between the minerals of the Moon is the absence of exposure to water and oxygen produced by living beings, a high proportion of meteorite impurities and traces of impact. cosmic radiation. Ozone layer The earth was formed a long time ago, and the atmosphere burns most masses of falling meteorites, allowing water and gases to slowly but surely change the face of our planet.

The future of the moon

The Moon is the first cosmic body after Mars, which claims to be the first human colonization. In a sense, the Moon has already been mastered - the USSR and the USA left it on the satellite state regalia, and orbiting radio telescopes hide behind reverse side The moon from the Earth, the generator of a lot of interference in the air. However, what awaits our satellite in the future?

The main process, which has already been mentioned more than once in the article, is the distance of the Moon due to tidal acceleration. It happens quite slowly - the satellite flies away by no more than 0.5 centimeters per year. However, something completely different is important here. Distancing itself from the Earth, the Moon slows down its rotation. Sooner or later, a moment may come when a day on Earth will last as long as a lunar month - 29-30 days.

However, the removal of the moon will have its limit. After reaching it, the Moon will begin to approach the Earth in turns - and much faster than it moved away. However, it will not succeed in completely crashing into it. For 12-20 thousand kilometers from the Earth, its Roche cavity begins - the gravitational limit at which a satellite of a planet can maintain a solid shape. Therefore, the Moon on approach will be torn into millions of small fragments. Some of them will fall to Earth, setting up a bombardment thousands of times more powerful than nuclear, and the rest will form a ring around the planet like . However, it will not be as bright - rings gas giants consist of ice, which is many times brighter than the dark rocks of the moon - they will not always be visible in the sky. The Ring of the Earth will create a problem for the astronomers of the future - if, of course, by then there is someone left on the planet.

Moon colonization

However, all this will happen in billions of years. Until then, mankind considers the Moon as the first potential object for space colonization. But what exactly is meant by "exploring the moon"? Now we will look at the nearest prospects together.

Many imagine space colonization similar to New Age colonization of Earth - search valuable resources, their extraction, and then delivery back home. However, this does not apply to space - in the next couple of hundred years, the delivery of a kilogram of gold, even from the nearest asteroid, will be more expensive than its extraction from the most difficult and dangerous mines. Also, the Moon is unlikely to act as a “dacha sector of the Earth” in the near future - although there are large deposits of valuable resources, it will be difficult to grow food there.

But our satellite may well become a base for further development space in promising directions- for example, the same Mars. the main problem astronautics today are weight restrictions spacecraft. To launch, you have to build monstrous structures that need tons of fuel - after all, you need to overcome not only the gravity of the Earth, but also the atmosphere! And if this is an interplanetary ship, then you also need to refuel it. This seriously constrains designers, forcing them to prefer parsimony over functionality.

The moon is much better suited for the launch pad of spacecraft. lack of atmosphere and low speed to overcome the pull of the Moon - 2.38 km / s versus 11.2 km / s of the Earth - make launches much easier. And the satellite's mineral deposits make it possible to save on the weight of fuel - a stone around the neck of astronautics, which occupies a significant proportion of the mass of any apparatus. If you expand production rocket fuel on the Moon, it will be possible to launch large and complex spacecraft assembled from parts brought from Earth. And assembly on the moon will be much easier than on earth orbit- and much more reliable.

The technologies that exist today make it possible, if not completely, then partially, to implement this project. However, any steps in this direction require risk. The huge investment will require research for the right minerals, as well as the development, delivery and testing of modules for future lunar bases. And one estimated cost of launching even the initial elements is capable of ruining an entire superpower!

Therefore, the colonization of the Moon is not so much the work of scientists and engineers as the work of people around the world to achieve such a valuable unity. For in the unity of mankind lies true power Earth.

10:10 13/11/2016

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November 14 is expected to appear the next complete since 1948. When can you see her? What exactly should be monitored? Is the supermoon just a scam? Below you will find answers to all questions.

On November 14, 2016, the Moon will come much closer than it did on January 26, 1948. This event will combine both a full moon and a supermoon. Then this tandem can be observed only on November 25, 2034. This combination of circumstances makes the upcoming full moon the closest and biggest supermoon in 86 years! Here are 5 things you should know.

The moon will be equally amazing on November 13 and 14

This is the first and most important thing you need to know. In many of the articles that we looked at, it is advised to look out for the supermoon on November 14th. But for most of us, especially those who live in America, the Moon will retain its size and brightness (if not even brighter) on November 13th.

The fact is that the moon will reach the peak of its phase (and its closest point of the month - perigee) in the early morning of November 14, in accordance with the time in the Americas.

So for all Americans, the Moon will be closest to the Earth on the morning of November 14, not in the evening. This means that for all time zones, including Alaska and Hawaiian Islands, the supermoon comes closer to the night of November 13th. This is all the more good if you are a morning person and plan to watch the supermoon until dawn.

But don't worry about it. The moon will be large and bright on both nights. And everyone will be able to see and photograph an amazing spectacle.

On the right is the supermoon on August 29, 2015. On the left is on March 5, 2015, the "micro moon" is the smallest full moon of the year. Photos taken by Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe.

Is the supermoon just a scam? Not

The term "supermoon" appeared relatively recently. Before spreading the name, astronomers often referred to this phenomenon as a "perigee full moon." Catchy? Well, not really. Most people ignored it until a new term emerged.

What is special about a supermoon? Finely tuned instruments (composite images) show that the supermoon is indeed closer to Earth. So it's more than normal full moon.

But many of us, observing without the use of technology, cannot detect this difference. Meanwhile, experienced observers sometimes say they see this difference.

So if most can't see the difference in size, then why are we all so excited about this event? There are two things to be aware of.

First, for all of us, the brightness of the moon will noticeably increase during the formation of a supermoon. All full moons are bright, but a supermoon is noticeably different. So... pay attention to the brightness, not the enormity of the moon on November 13 and 14!

Secondly, lunar gravity affects the Earth's tides, and the supermoon (the closest full moon to Earth) has a stronger effect on the oceans. Therefore, the tides at this time will be much higher.

Super moon can create super tides

So is a supermoon a hype? Ask the oceans about it! All full moons result in high tides, called spring floods or, in some places, royal tides.

A supermoon results in the highest and lowest tides.

If you live near the coastline, then watch out for the high tides caused by November 14th. Continue tracking for several days after the event. They may last a day or two.

Will the tides lead to floods? Most probably not. Of course, unless a strong weather system is moving through coastline to where you are. This is what happened to the tides after the supermoon in 2015. Then a supermoon, combined with an 18.6-year-old lunar cycle and a tropical storm, caused high tides and some flooding on both sides of the Atlantic.

So keep an eye on the weather on November 14 if you live near the coast. Storms do have high potential to enhance the high spring tides, especially if they are caused by a supermoon.

Nearest moon is almost always full

We're wondering... is this the closest Moon (overall) since 1948, or the closest Full Moon? It turns out that these two events are usually the same thing.

July 20th, 1969 American spaceship Apollo 11 made the first ever landing on the moon. Since then, a lot has become known about this satellite of the Earth, but there are still unsolved riddles. We've rounded up five of the weirdest ones for you.

1. One of the mysteries is just related to the landing of Apollo 11. Namely, with a photograph taken in 1969. The fact is that there was simply no one to shoot the landing of astronauts like a professional photographer on the Moon. The shooting was carried out with a regular external camera of the lunar lander and cameras of astronauts. real photo As Armstrong set foot on the surface, the picture quality is far from perfect. But the press needs beautiful pictures of a man who stepped on the moon. So the Americans mounted the picture on Earth.

2. Some structures have been built on the Moon. And according to some astronomy lovers, whole cities are. In confirmation of this, there is even a photo of those same structures. But to whom they belong, and whether the surface of the Moon is really in the pictures, is difficult to say.

3. Thunderstorms were observed on the Moon. The first weather phenomenon was described in 1715 by the astronomer De Louville. He spoke of a thunderstorm that had raged for hours. He saw nothing surprising in this. After all, then no one knew that the moon was completely devoid of atmosphere. And, therefore, the bright flashes that he noticed could not be a thunderstorm in our understanding. Our contemporaries dug up notes from the 18th and 19th centuries and thought: what did the ancestors actually see? Maybe volcanoes? It has long been known that the Moon is volcanically active. But this is not an explanation. The volcano looks very different than what the astronomers of the past described.

4. Exactly such flashes were seen from the board of Apollo 17. The only more or less intelligible explanation was seen in the fall of asteroids and volcanoes. But modern science today destroyed those assumptions. Volcanoes on the Moon have a completely different look. Meteor bombardment doesn't look like electrical discharge lightning. But for blasting, melting the soil with the help of some kind of beam, for the operation of the unit with the help of which, for example, drilling is carried out or part of the soil is removed, it is quite similar.

4. Is there water on the moon? The fact that there really is water behind the moon was confirmed by three space satellite. The data obtained show that water exists in a diffuse form over the entire surface of the Moon. Also, studies have shown that on the Moon there may be a cyclical nature of water - its molecules either break down or reappear. It was only at that time that scientists considered that water - earthly origin. And only new studies have shown that there is still water on the moon. According to scientists, it can occur both on the very lunar surface, and in space, and then get to the satellite using comets or the solar wind.

Scientists have no doubt that the lunar surface is much wetter than previously thought.

5. "Defense of the Moon". Such a phenomenon takes place on the Earth's satellite, scientists are sure.

An amazing circumstance becomes clear if we look at the lunar expeditions. For all the time, about 100 attempts were made to send spacecraft from the Earth to the Moon. Of these, only in 44% of cases the flight program was completed. Interestingly, when flying to a much more distant " hellish planet» Venus, despite its clouds of sulfuric, hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids and terrible conditions on the surface (temperature up to +500 degrees C, pressure about a hundred atmospheres), 67% of launches were successful.

The probe "Luna - 2" was actually "fired in space." The satellite exploded on landing in 1959. This was followed by several more explosions. Lunas-7,8,15,18,23, Rangers-6,7,8,9, Surveyors-2,4 and the lunar cabins of the Apollo expeditions fell. By the way, no traces of the explosions were found ...

The large and small whirlwinds that appear in the deserts arise not so much from the wind as from static electricity. In this case, the field strength reaches a huge value - 100 thousand volts.

This is evidenced by the results of the work of researchers from the University of Michigan.
The process of a hurricane begins with a small breeze over a dry area, raising grains of dust and sand into the air.

At the same time, small ones collide with larger ones, taking away electrons from them. After some time, in a cloud of these particles flying in the air, the charges are clearly separated, and small particles turn out to be negatively charged, and large particles are positively charged. The small particles are then blown higher by the wind, creating a negatively charged region above the earth's surface, which in turn is positively charged.

As a result, an electric field arises between these two opposite space charges. After this field appears, large quantity particles rises into the air, but not so much due to the wind as due to electrical forces.

Dust storms on the moon

NASA said that in the morning the moon is raging dust storms. But the moon has no atmosphere and no winds. So what can make even the smallest dust rise above the surface?

It turns out that during the full moon, the Moon falls into the tail of the Earth's magnetosphere, which causes lunar dust storms and static electricity discharges on the Moon, i.e. the reason lies in the resulting difference in the charges of the day and night half of the Moon, as well as in the Earth's magnetic plume.

When, after a two-week lunar night, the Sun rises above the horizon of the Moon, the dust on its surface begins to move. This "dust storm" stretches across the lunar terminator from pole to pole. But there is no atmosphere on the moon! The explanation seems to lie in the fact that the night side of the Moon has negative charge near the surface, and the surface of the dayside is positively charged. As the terminator line moves across the surface of the Moon, the difference in charges causes dust to move at this boundary of day and night. The same happens during the passage of the Moon's magnetic plume of the Earth, 3 days before and 3 days after the full moon. Perhaps the nature of short-term Lunar phenomena partly lies in it.

sunny wind- a stream of charged particles, as it were, "blows off" the Earth's magnetic field, pulling it out and forming an extended tail extending far beyond the orbit of the Moon. On a full moon, the Moon passes through the plasma layer of the Earth's magnetosphere, where the trapped magnetic field charged particles. The lightest and most mobile of them - electrons - collide with the lunar surface, charging it negatively. On the illuminated side, the excess charge is reduced as photons knock electrons off the surface. But on dark side the accumulated charge can lift into the air a large number of dust that can clog lunar equipment. Moreover, charged dust can move from the dark side to the less negative day side, creating storms on the terminator line.

So the Moon can be under the influence of the plasma layer from several minutes to several days, accumulating a static charge of several kilovolts.

These unexpected phenomena on the Moon are evidenced both by optical observations of the terminator from the Earth, and by the strange results of experiments carried out with the help of NASA programs Apollo instrumentation.

This effect was first discovered in 1968, when NASA's Surveyor 7 lander photographed a strange glow on the horizon after sunset. Today scientists believe that sunlight scattered by electrically charged lunar dust flying over the surface.

A similar effect was recorded by the Soviet moon rovers. Lunokhod-2 purposefully measured the brightness moon sky astrophotometers and confirmed the presence of a cloud in circumlunar space. And drivers of lunar rovers complained about dust pollution. The static effect apparently explains the strong stickiness of lunar dust.

Another confirmation of this was received from the Lunar Prospector satellite, which was in lunar orbit in 1998-1999. When crossing the tail of the earth's magnetosphere, the device recorded strong discharges on the dark side of the moon.

The mystery of lightning on the satellite dates back, perhaps, as far back as 1654, when the famous French writer Cyrano de Bergerac published the book " Another Light, or States and Empires of the Moon. This strange book is full of amazing insights far ahead of their time. Among them we find a description of the journey on the moon: "... I walked for an hour and arrived in a place where thousands of lightning merged into one, forming a dazzling light, thanks to which the darkness around became especially noticeable."

A witty invention? But an adjunct of the Paris Academy of Sciences Zh.E. de Louville published 64 years later treatise, in which he reported on his observations on May 3, 1715 for the flickering of bright stripes on the disk of the moon. The astronomer perceived unusual flashes "like thunderstorm lightning, which could then be in the atmosphere of the Moon ..." It is unlikely that they were only flickers in earth's atmosphere, because "these flashes of light ... appeared in one place or another, but always from the side of the shadow" (that is, only on the disk of the Moon, which then eclipsed the Sun). Similar phenomena have been noted by other observers. For example, August 4, 1738 and July 8, 1842

But the most striking message is from N. J. Giddings already in this century:

... I was working in the yard of our house ... and accidentally looked at the moon. She was very beautiful - a clearly defined young moon. And I was looking at her, when suddenly some flashes of light flashed across her dark surface, but definitely within the outline of the moon. Since this was a phenomenon that I had never seen before, I continued to watch and saw similar flashes again flash across the Moon for a moment or two. Without mentioning my observations, I called my wife to also pay attention to the young Moon ... She said: “Oh, yes, I see lightning on the Moon,” adding that it appeared within the lunar disk. We observed another 20 or 30 minutes, during which the phenomenon repeated at least six or seven times. This entry was made at 7:40 p.m. afternoon of June 17, 1931.

Mount Wilson Observatory astronomers, whom N.J. Giddings sent a letter with a message about his observations, they simply brushed him off - what kind of lightning is there if there is practically no atmosphere on the Moon!

However, nature often turns out to be more complicated than ideas about it, and observers continued to report “lightning” on our satellite ... Thus, Moscow amateur astronomy E.V. Arsyukhin unexpectedly witnessed a “thunderstorm” that happened on the Moon on November 18, 1991. At the very border lunar day and at night, between the craters Darwin and Fokilid, with the help of a telescope in half an hour he counted 5 zigzag “lightnings”, 7 point flashes and 2 “glows”, about which he wrote to the author of these lines. Significantly, the observer himself chose to use the term "lightning" to describe what he saw. Terrestrial meteors or scintillations would, of course, flash all over the terminator, and not be concentrated on one small area of ​​the lunar surface.

Of course, eyewitness accounts of "impossible" phenomena do not convince respectable astronomers - after all, there should not be lightning on the Moon ... But in 1977 English physicists J.E. Jake and A.A. Mills questioned the seemingly obvious thesis. They drew attention to the fact that in the plumes of gases and ash emitted terrestrial volcanoes, lightning often strikes. This phenomenon has been repeatedly photographed by volcanologists. It is explained by the electrification of ash particles rubbing against each other and against the gas. Mills and Jake admit that something similar can happen on the Moon - gas, occasionally escaping from the bowels of the satellite, raises dust, forming a gas-dust cloud. In particular, it is this fact that they explain the lunar lightnings seen by Zh.E. Louville in 1715. However, it is unlikely that sufficiently dense gas-dust clouds extended for a thousand kilometers, as follows from the observations of N.J. Giddings! More interesting latest experiments American physicists X. Campins and E.F. Kreider. They took a dielectric (a piece of sulfur), placed it in a vacuum and began to irradiate this target with an electron beam, essentially simulating the irradiation of the lunar surface with particles of the solar wind. The solar wind is an electrically neutral flow of a mixture of high energy protons and electrons. According to Campins and Kreider, protons "get stuck" in the dielectric at shallower depths than the deeper penetrating, nimble electrons. In this case, the surface of the dielectric accumulates positive charge protons, and a little deeper (up to several millimeters) - the negative charge of electrons. A kind of capacitor is formed, which sooner or later “breaks through” with a spark discharge. Campins and Kreider did without protons - electrons already created a potential difference in the surface layer of the sample.

Standing in the dark at the Stanford Research Institute's glass vacuum chamber, they clearly saw the bright flashes of the target: “In some cases, the flash caused the entire surface to glow; in other cases, a lightning-like pattern appeared. Several times the flash covered the entire surface after the electron beam had been pulled aside.” Why couldn't similar phenomena occur on the Moon? This would explain both the appearance of lunar lightning and the “glow” phenomenon described by E.V. Arsyukhin. Moreover, it has been well known since the early 1970s that spark discharges often occur in dielectrics. artificial satellites Earth and interplanetary stations flying in outer space. On the pages of authoritative scientific journal "Science" X. Campins and E.F. Kreider directly call the moon among celestial bodies, most suitable for searching for spark discharges.