Lunar Transient Phenomena and modern understanding of the Moon

Since William Herschel's first excited report of an eruption at the lunar crater Aristarchus there have been a few thousand reports of lunar flashes, mists, obscurations and flickering red glows, generally termed Lunar Transient Phenomena (LTPs). If any of these are real events, the Moon is much different from the way most scientists understand it to be. Based on examination of Apollo samples and the lack of any substantiated observed changes, the Moon is considered to be a largely dead world geologically. Recent discoveries of water at the poles and perhaps in rocks do not yet force abandonment of that view. Additionally, some observations of LTPs are now well understood – and they prove that the Moon has not changed after all. The mystery of reported changes on the Moon is being resolved.

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About Chuck Wood

Charles A. Wood is a veteran lunar observer and former member of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona where he worked on mapping the Moon and cataloguing its craters. Currently he chairs the IAU lunar nomenclature committee. He wrote The Modern Moon – A Personal View (Sky Publishing) and most recently has coauthored The Kaguya Lunar Atlas (Springer). Over the last decade Wood has written lunar columns for Sky & Telescope and for seven years has published the online Lunar Photo of the Day. He is not yet bored by the Moon.

Lunar Photo of the Day