Howling At The Moon

Blue moon pic from astronomyforbeginners

Look at that.

Isn't it beautiful? The nearest celestial body to Earth: La Luna. The haunting beauty of the moon has inspired poets, storytellers, and lovers throughout millennia.

So beautiful, in fact, that it inspired NASA to carve another pockmark on its already-cratered face yesterday.

John Johnson Jr.
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 9, 2009
4:52 a.m.

MOUNTAIN VIEW — A NASA rocket plowed into a crater on the moon this morning, looking for evidence that water has been lying hidden in the lunar wasteland for billions of years.

Between 500 and a thousand people who had waited all night for a glimpse of the 4:30 a.m. PDT crash into the Cabeus crater watched as an outdoor movie screen projected images of the broken lunar landscape just before the impact.

Officials at Ames made the crash event a public celebration, welcoming the public onto the grounds and reserving space for tents and camp chairs. Booths selling pizza and soft drinks were sprinkled around the plaza, where visitors huddled in blankets and sleeping bags while waiting for the impact.


Now, I'm aware that erratic behavior has long been linked to the moon. The words "lunacy" and "lunatic" themselves are derived from the Latin word luna, meaning "moon". It wasn't only pagans who believed in this link; Thomas Aquinas himself has been said to have written that madness is affected by the many phases of the moon. And even modern science has conducted studies to test if human behavior is influenced by the moon.

Exhibit A.

Taken from here.

Loony or not, it's not exactly the first time we've violated Sister Moon. But unlike the Apollo landings, this particular millennial excursion comes at a less innocent time. The novelty of space exploration and the romantic adventure of space conquest have long waned. So the idea of Americans traipsing on literal otherworlds to colonize, pillage, and pollute won't exactly have this world "over the moon", so to speak. It also doesn't help that the "scientific experiment"  has been reported in screaming headlines as NASA Bombs The Moon.

"Iie!!! Yamete!!! YAMETEEEE!!!"

This is for you, john stanley.

It's early. The "bombing" just happened yesterday and the live footage feed was more boring than Sunday Mass. The moon hasn't veered off its trajectory or shattered into a bazillion pieces... yet. But predictably, reactions thus far have ranged from rabid right-wing political commentary, to MTV pop punditry, to superstitious New Age rambling and inevitably to downright, well...loony.
 

A decade too early, Commander Koenig.

Among them, fears of alien retribution , now that we've attacked the moon - even though it is our own.
 
Think what you will, but, in a perverted sort of way, it all makes sense, especially as we race towards Armaggeddon . Before we blow up the Earth, why not blow up the moon first?
 

After all - why should she survive?