Hollow Moon

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The Hollow Moon hypothesis, or Spaceship Moon hypothesis, proposes that Earth's Moon is either wholly hollow or otherwise contains a substantial interior space. No scientific evidence exists to support the idea; seismic observations and other data collected since spacecraft began to orbit or land on the Moon indicate that it has a thin crust, extensive mantle and small, dense core, although overall it is much less dense than Earth.

The Hollow Moon concept is similar to the better-known Hollow Earth hypothesis, and was a recurring plot device in pre-spaceflight science fiction.

Introduction

Edmond Halley with a diagram showing the multiple shells of his hollow Earth theory

The Hollow Moon hypothesis is the suggestion that the moon is hollow, usually as a product of an alien civilisation.[1][2] It is often called the Spaceship Moon hypothesis,[1][2] and often corresponds with beliefs in UFOs or ancient astronauts.[2][3]

The suggestion of a hollow moon first appeared in science fiction, when H. G. Wells wrote about a hollow moon in his 1901 book The First Men in the Moon.[4][1] The concept of hollow planets was not new; Wells borrowed from earlier fictional works that described a hollow Earth, such as the 1741 novel Niels Klim's Underground Travels.[5] Academic proposals for a hollow Earth pre-dated that. Edmond Halley's hypotheses, advanced in 1692,[6] was the first one to specify an actual void in the Earth.[7]

Greek mythology, with its Hades, and early religious concepts of an underworld, such as the Christian Hell, contributed to ideas of the Earth being hollow.[8]

Spaceship Moon Theory

The Spaceship Moon Theory, also known as the Vasin-Shcherbakov Theory, is a hypothesis that claims the Earth's moon may actually be an alien spacecraft. The hypothesis was put forth by two members of the then Soviet Academy of Sciences, Michael Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov, in a July 1970 article entitled "Is the Moon the Creation of Alien Intelligence?"

They advanced the thesis that the Moon is a spaceship created by unknown beings with technology far superior to any on Earth. The Moon would consist of a hull and a loosely-packed outer covering. For reasons unknown, the "Spaceship Moon" was then placed into orbit around the Earth.

Their hypothesis relies heavily on the suggestion that large lunar craters, generally assumed to be formed from meteor impact, are generally too shallow and have flat or even convex bottoms. Small craters have a depth proportional to their diameter but larger craters are not deeper. They hypothesized that small meteors are making a cup-shaped depression in the rocky surface of the moon while the larger meteors are drilling through a three-mile thick rocky layer and hitting an armoured hull underneath.

Additionally the authors note that the surface material of the moon contains chromium, titanium and zirconium, which they contend might have come from the armoured hull and been distributed over the surface after asteroid impact.

Criticisms

Cornell University's Ask an Astronomer, run by volunteers in the Astronomy Department,[9] answered the question "Can we prove that the Moon isn't hollow?". There, physicist Suniti Karunatillake suggests that there are at least two ways to determine the distribution of mass within a body. One involves moment of inertia parameters, the other involves seismic observations. In the case of the former, Karunatillake points out that the moment of inertia parameters indicate that the core of the moon is both dense and small, with the rest of the moon consisting of material with nearly-constant density. As for the latter, he notes that the moon is the only planetary body besides Earth on which extensive seismic observations have been made. These observations have constrained the thickness of the moon's crust, mantle and core, suggesting it could not be hollow.[10]

In popular culture

In a trilogy by science fiction author David Weber, the moon is in fact a giant space ship which arrived 50,000 years ago. The population of Earth are the descendants of the crew of the ship, who abandoned it after it was damaged in a mutiny, and the moon is an artificial construct which was given a rocky outer coating as a form of camouflage. The three books in the series are Mutineers' Moon, The Armageddon Inheritance and Heirs of Empire.

Scientific perspective

Schematic illustration showing a cross-section of the currently accepted internal structure of the Earth's Moon

A 2011 NASA press release, and a single 1976 scientific study on the internal structure of the Moon speculate on the possibility of a solid internal structure with a thin crust, an extensive mantle and a small denser core.[11][12] This is based on:

  1. Seismic observations. Besides Earth, the Moon is the only planetary body with a seismic observation network in place. Analysis of lunar seismic data have helped constrain the thickness of the crust (~45 km)[13] and mantle, as well as the core radius (~350 km).[14][15]
  2. Moment of inertia parameters. For the Moon, moment of inertia parameters have demonstrated that the core is ~1.4% of the total mass.[16] One such parameter, the normalized polar moment of inertia, is 0.393 ± 0.001.[16][17] This is very close to the value for a solid object with radially constant density, which would be 0.4 (for comparison, Earth's value is 0.33). The normalized polar moment of inertia for a hollow Moon would have a higher value, closer to 0.67. In other words, the moment of inertia parameters indicate that the core of the Moon is both dense and small, with the rest of the Moon consisting of material with nearly-constant density.
  3. Fine-scale variation (e.g., variation along the orbit of the Lunar Prospector orbiter) of the lunar gravitational field, which is consistent with geologic processes involving a crust, mantle, and core.[16]

The large-scale gravitational field of the Moon, however, is unaffected by the internal distribution of mass if the internal density is assumed to vary only radially. For example, had the Moon been replaced with a point object of identical mass, the current gravitational field would continue to exist at distances greater than the ~1700 km[18] lunar radius. This can be derived directly for a spherically symmetric Moon by applying the integral form[19] of Gauss's law. Therefore, the large-scale gravitational field of the Moon does not convey any information about the internal radial distribution of mass. Hollow Moon proponents would, however, have to account for the incredible density of the Moon's crust if it were in fact hollow. As gravitational pull is determined by mass, a hollow moon would require an inordinately dense crust to achieve observed gravitational values.

Conflicting arguments

University of Notre Dame Professor of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences Clive R. Neil described the Moon as "ringing like a bell," leading to arguments that it must be hollow like a bell. Lunar seismology experiments since then have shown that the lunar body has shallow "moonquakes" that act differently from quakes on Earth, due to differences in texture, type and density of the planetary strata, but no evidence of any large empty space inside the body.[20]

The Moon's density is 3.34 g/cm3 (3.34 times an equal volume of water) whereas the Earth's is 5.5. Proponents argue that this indicates the Moon must have a large cavity inside it.

Some proponents argue that lunar craters are too shallow to be easily explained. A recent study indicates that larger craters on the near side may be a reflection of the thickness of the crust.[21]

In literature

  • In H.G. Wells's book The First Men in The Moon (1901), Wells describes the insect-like "Selenites" who live inside a hollow Moon.
  • Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote an adventure novel, The Moon Maid (1922), set in the interior of a postulated hollow Moon which had an atmosphere and was inhabited. In the sequel, The Moon Men, natives of the hollow Moon invade and conquer Earth. Burroughs also wrote the Pellucidar series, set in the interior of a hollow Earth.
  • That Hideous Strength (1945) by C. S. Lewis takes place on Earth, but a hollow Moon is an important part of the novel's background, and is known by its inhabitants as "Sulva."
  • The Lomokome Papers, Herman Wouk's little-known venture into science fiction (1947),[22] also uses the concept.
  • Neznaika on the Moon, (1965), by Russian author Nikolay Nosov.
  • In Shelton Ranasinghe's book Heaven at SETI's Doorstep (2011), scientists working for the SETI project detect signals coming from inside the Moon.
  • In David Icke's book Human Race Get off Your Knees – The Lion Sleeps No More (David Icke Books, 2010. ISBN 0955997313.), Icke discusses the idea of a hollow moon.
  • In Hollow Moon by AWOLNATION, (2015)[23]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Is the Moon Hollow?". Armagh Planetarium. 22 May 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Jason Colavito (23 September 2012). ""Spaceship Moon" and Soviet Scientific Politics". JasonColavito.com.
  3. ^ "Space Station Moon". Ancient Aliens. History Channel. S11, E11.
  4. ^ "Hollow Moon". Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute. 2 February 2009.
  5. ^ Jerome Hamilton Buckley, ed. (1975). The Worlds of Victorian Fiction. Harvard University Press. p. 412, n. 27.
  6. ^ "An Account of the cause of the Change of the Variation of the Magnetic Needle; with an Hypothesis of the Structure of the Internal Parts of the Earth". The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. III. pp. 470-478, esp. p. 475. 1683–1694.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  7. ^ N. Kollerstrom (1992). "THE HOLLOW WORLD OF EDMOND HALLEY". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 23: 185–192.
  8. ^ Brian Regal (2009). Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press. p. 81.
  9. ^ "About the Ask an Astronomer Team". Ask an Astronomer. Cornell University. 14 November 2011.
  10. ^ "Can we prove that the Moon isn't hollow?". Ask an Astronomer. Cornell University. October 2007.
  11. ^ Measurements of the lunar induced magnetic moment in the geomagnetic tail: Evidence for a lunar core?
  12. ^ BASA Research: Moon has Earth-like core
  13. ^ Khan, A. (2002). "An inquiry into the lunar interior: A nonlinear inversion of the Apollo lunar seismic data". Journal of Geophysical Research. 107 (E6): 5036. Bibcode:2002JGRE..107.5036K. doi:10.1029/2001JE001658. ISSN 0148-0227.
  14. ^ Khan, A.; J. A. D. Connolly; J. Maclennan; K. Mosegaard (2007). "Joint inversion of seismic and gravity data for lunar composition and thermal state". Geophysical Journal International. 168 (1): 243–258. Bibcode:2007GeoJI.168..243K. doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2006.03200.x. ISSN 0956-540X.
  15. ^ Nakamura, Y.; D. Lammlein; G. Latham; M. Ewing; J. Dorman; F. Press; N. Toksoz (1973). "New Seismic Data on the State of the Deep Lunar Interior". Science. 181 (4094): 49–51. Bibcode:1973Sci...181...49N. doi:10.1126/science.181.4094.49. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17769823.
  16. ^ a b c Konopliv, A. S.; Binder, AB; Hood, LL; Kucinskas, AB; Sjogren, WL; Williams, JG (1998). "Improved Gravity Field of the Moon from Lunar Prospector". Science. 281 (5382): 1476–1480. Bibcode:1998Sci...281.1476K. doi:10.1126/science.281.5382.1476. PMID 9727968.
  17. ^ NASA Moon Fact Sheet
  18. ^ Garrick-Bethell, I.; Wisdom, J; Zuber, MT (2006). "Evidence for a Past High-Eccentricity Lunar Orbit". Science. 313 (5787): 652–655. Bibcode:2006Sci...313..652G. doi:10.1126/science.1128237. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 16888135.
  19. ^ Griffiths, David B. (1989). Introduction to electrodynamics. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-481367-7.
  20. ^ NASA Science News: "Moonquakes"
  21. ^ "The moon's face doesn't tell its whole story". MIT News. 7 November 2013. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= requires |archive-url= (help)
  22. ^ see Wouk - Lomokome Papers at epinions.com
  23. ^ Run (Awolnation album)

External links

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