Nothing can survive the brutal conditions on the surface of the Moon. But a story that debuted 125 years ago depicted a vast civilization below the surface – a society of insects.
First Men in the Moon was written by H.G. Wells. It was published over several months in two magazines – “The Cosmopolitan” in the United States, and “The Strand” in Britain. The first installment appeared in November of 1900.
In the story, a man named Bedford befriends a scientist named Cavor who’s invented “cavorite” – a substance that nullifies gravity. He builds a ship and covers it with shutters that are coated in the stuff. Opening and closing the shutters allows the ship to move through space.
The two men travel to the Moon, where they’re taken underground by the Selenites. Bedford escapes. Thinking Cavor is dead, he returns to Earth alone. But two years later, Cavor starts beaming messages to Earth. He describes the Moon and its inhabitants in detail. After he tells the Selenite’s leader of Earth’s war-like tendencies, though, he’s cut off – and never heard from again.
First Men in the Moon was a hit. It influenced scientists and other fiction writers alike for decades, inspiring more stories, plus efforts to reach the Moon – a world populated only in the imagination.
The Moon climbs into good view by about 8 o’clock tonight. Elnath – the second-brightest star of Taurus – is quite close to the Moon’s upper left.
Script by Damond Benningfield
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Biggest Black Hole
The black hole at the heart of the Milky Way is like the monster lurking under your bed. It’s four million times the mass of the Sun, and about 15 million miles across – just waiting to gobble up anything that gets too close.
But compared to the black holes in many other galaxies, the one in the Milky Way is less like a monster and more like a dust bunny. The largest ones yet seen are thousands of times bigger. They’re known as ultra-massive black holes. Informally, they’re also called SLABs – stupendously large black holes.
Just which one is the biggest is uncertain – it’s hard to measure the mass of something that might be billions of light-years away. A recent candidate is in a structure known as the Cosmic Horseshoe. The gravity of a stupendously large galaxy “warps” the view of a galaxy behind it, creating what looks like a big, blue horseshoe.
In a recent study, astronomers combined a couple of techniques to measure the mass of the black hole in the foreground galaxy: 36 billion times the mass of the Sun. Researchers say the combo makes the measurement the most accurate for any candidate for the “biggest black hole” honors.
But other black holes could be bigger. The biggest candidate is known as Phoenix A. It could be up to about 25 thousand times the mass of the Milky Way’s black hole. But that number is highly uncertain. So the search for the biggest black hole continues.
Script by Damond Benningfield
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Oldest Black Hole
A Little Red Dot might have a big black hole in its heart. And that’s a bit of a challenge to explain.
Little Red Dots are galaxies from the first 1.5 billion years of the universe. The name comes from their appearance – they’re small and red, but they’re especially bright. They don’t appear to have enough stars to make them so bright. So a good bit of their “shininess” could come from giant black holes that are devouring material around them. As they tumble inward, the hot gas, dust, and stars produce enormous amounts of energy.
Even so, the black hole in one Little Red Dot is a bit of a puzzler.
Led by astronomers at the University of Texas at Austin, a team looked at CAPERS-LRD-z9 with Webb Space Telescope. By measuring the speed of material orbiting the center of the galaxy, the team determined that the black hole is up to 300 million times the mass of the Sun.
And that’s where the challenge comes in. The galaxy is so far away that we see it as it looked when the universe was just 500 million years old – three percent of its current age. That makes the black hole the most-distant yet seen. But theories of how such monster black holes form say that half a billion years probably isn’t long enough to make one that big. So theorists have a lot of work to do to explain the giant black hole at the center of a Little Red Dot.
More about black holes tomorrow.
Script by Damond Benningfield
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Hunter’s Moon
With the autumn harvest safely stowed away, many people in bygone centuries turned their attention to hunting. And just as the Harvest Moon helped them bring in the crops, the Hunter’s Moon helped them find game. The moonlight made it easier to track animals through the empty fields and beyond.
Although most present-day Americans don’t have to worry about storing food for the winter, we still keep the names for those full Moons. We had the Harvest Moon last month. And tonight, it’s time for the Hunter’s Moon.
The names for both of these full Moons come mainly from parts of Europe and the British Isles. The names were recorded as far back as the early 1700s, but they’d probably been in everyday use for much longer. Variations of the “Hunter’s Moon” label were used by several native tribes and nations in the Americas as well.
The Harvest Moon is usually defined as the full Moon closest to the autumn equinox. Most years, that puts it in September. But this year, October’s full Moon edged out September by just a few hours. So the Hunter’s Moon got bumped into November.
Officially, the Moon will be full at 7:19 a.m. Central Standard Time tomorrow. So it will appear almost as “full” when it rises tomorrow night as it does tonight – extra time to appreciate the brilliant glow of the Hunter’s Moon.
Tomorrow: A giant black hole at the center of a little red dot.
Script by Damond Benningfield
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Terrible Taurids?
In 1908, a space rock the size of a small office building exploded above Siberia, flattening hundreds of square miles of forest. In 1975, several “fireballs” blazed across the night, and instruments on the Moon recorded several impacts. And 30 years later, scientists saw an impact on the Moon.
These events might all be related to the Taurid meteor shower, which is underway now. The shower is created by two objects – a comet and an asteroid. They might be the remnants of a larger body that broke apart thousands of years ago. The debris might include larger rocks ranging from the size of boulders to mountains.
The material is spaced across a long, wide path. Earth flies through this path twice a year. We sweep up some of the debris – mostly small bits of dust and rock.
The amount of material varies from year to year, depending on which part of the stream we pass through. Right now, we’re in a thin region. In 1975, we passed through a denser part, producing more fireballs.
It’s been suggested that when we pass through denser parts of the stream, we might encounter some of the bigger rocks, which could cause major damage if they hit us. Astronomers will be watching during the next crossings through dense regions, in the next decade.
For now, the Taurids are at their best the next few nights. The Moon will wash out almost all the meteors. But a few fireballs might shine through.
Script by Damond Benningfield
New Zealand