1 . The Puzzle of the Moon's Origin: Scientists
have generally offered three major theories to
account for the moon in orbit around our
planet. All three are in serious trouble, but the
least likely theory emerged from the Apollo
missions as the favorite theory. One theory was
that the moon might have been born alongside
the earth out of the same cosmic cloud of gas
dust about 4.6 billion years ago. Another
theory was that the moon was the earth's child,
ripped out the Pacific basin, possibly. Evidence
gathered by the Apollo program indicates
though that the moon and the earth differ
greatly in composition. Scientists now tend to
lean toward the third theory- that the moon
was "captured" by the earth's gravitational field
and locked into orbit ages ago. Opponents of
the theory point to the immensely difficult
celestial mechanics involved in such a capture.
All of the theories are in doubt, and none
satisfactory. NASA scientist Dr. Robin Brett
sums it up best: "It seems much easier to
explain the nonexistence of the moon than its
existence."
2. The Puzzle of the Moon's Age: Incredibly,
over 99 percent of the moon rocks brought
back turned out upon analysis to be older than
90 percent of the oldest rocks that can be
found on earth. The first rock Neil Armstrong
picked up after landing on the Sea of
Tranquility turned out to be more than 3.6
billion years old. Other rocks turned out to be
even older; 4.3, 4.5, 4.6, and one even alleged
to be 5.3 billion years old! The oldest rocks
found on earth are about 3.7 billion years old,
and the area that the moon rocks came from
was thought by scientists to be one of the
youngest areas of the moon! Based on such
evidence, some scientists have concluded that
the moon was formed among the stars long
before our sun was born.
3 . The Puzzle Of How Moon Soil Could Be Older
Than Lunar Rocks: The mystery of the age of
the Moon is even more perplexing when rocks
taken from the Sea of Tranquillity were young
compared to the soil on which they rested.
Upon analysis, the soil proved to be at least a
billion years older. This would appear
immpossible, since the soil was powdered
remains of the rocks lying alongside it.
Chemical analysis of the soil revealed that the
lunar soil did not come from the rocks, but from
somewhere else.
4 . The Puzzle of Why the Moon "Rings" like a
Hollow Sphere When a Large Object Hits It:
During the Apollo Moon missions, ascent
stages of lunar modules as well as the spent
third stages of rockets crashed on the hard
surface of the moon. Each time, these caused
the moon, according to NASA, to "ring like a
gong or a bell." On one of the Apollo 12 flights,
reverberations lasted from nearly an hour to as
much as four hours. NASA is reluctant to
suggest that the moon may actually be hollow,
but can otherwise not explain this strange fact.
5. The Puzzle of the Mystifying Maria of the
Moon: The dark areas of the moon are known
as maria (seas, as this is what they looked like
to early astronomers- dried-up seas). Some of
these maria form the familiar "man-in-the-
moon" and are strangely, located almost
entirely on one side of the moon. Astronauts
found it extremely difficult to drill into the
surface of these dark plainlike areas. Soil
samples were loaded with rear metals and
elements like titanium, zirconium, yttrium, and
beryllium. This dumbfounded scientists
because these elements require tremendous
heat, approximately 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit,
to melt and fuse with surrounding rock, as it
had.
6. The Puzzle of the Rustproof Iron Found on
the Moon: Samples brought back to earth by
both Soviet and American space probes
contain pure iron particles. The Soviets
announced that pure iron particles brought
back by remote controlled lunar probe Zond 20
have not oxidized even after several years on
earth. Pure iron particles that do not rust are
unheard of in the scientific world (although
there is a solid iron pillar of unknown age in
New Delhi, India, that has also never rusted,
and no one knows why).
7. The Puzzle of the Moon's High Radioactivity:
Apparently, the upper 8 miles of the moon's
crust are surprisingly radioactive. When Apollo
15 astronauts used thermal equipment, they
got unusually high readings, which indicated
that the heat flow near the Apennine Mountains
was rather hot. In fact, one lunar expert
confessed: "When we saw that we said, 'My
God, this place is about to melt! The core must
be very hot.' " But that is the puzzle. The core
is not hot at all, but cold (in fact, as was
assumed, it is a hollow sphere). The amount of
radioactive materials on the surface is not only
"embarrassingly high" but, difficult to account
for. Where did all this hot radioactive material
(uranium, thorium, and potassium) come from?
And if it came from the interior of the moon
(unlikely), how did it get to the moon's surface?
8. The Puzzle of the Immense Clouds of Water
Vapor on the Dry Moon: The few lunar
excursions indicated that the moon was a very
dry world. One lunar expert said that it was "a
million times as dry as the Gobi Desert." The
early Apollo missions did not find even the
slightest trace of water. But after Apollo 15,
NASA experts were stunned when a cloud of
water vapor more than 100 square miles in size
was detected on the moon's surface. Red-
faced scientists suggested that two tiny tanks,
abandoned on the moon by U.S. astronauts,
had somehow ruptured. But the tanks could
not have produced a cloud of such magnitude.
Nor would the astronauts' urine, which had
been dumped into the lunar skies, be an
answer. The water vapor appears to have
come from the moon's interior, according to
NASA. Mists, clouds and surface changes have
allegedly been seen on the moon over the years
by astronomers. For instance, six astronomers
in the last century have claimed to have seen a
mist which obscured details in the floor of the
crater Plato. Clouds on the moon are extremely
odd, because the moon's supposed small
gravity (one sixth of the earth's, claim many
conventional scientists and NASA) could not
hold an atmosphere or have any clouds on it at
all.
9. The Puzzle of the Glassy Surface on the
Moon: Lunar explorations have revealed that
much of the moon's surface is covered with a
glassy glaze, which indicates that the moon's
surface has been scorched by an unknown
source of intense heat. As one scientist put it,
the moon is "paved with glass." The experts'
analysis shows this did not result from massive
meteor impactings. One explanation forwarded
was that an intense solar flare, of awesome
proportions, scorched the moon some 30,000
years or so ago. Scientists have remarked that
the glassy glaze is not unlike that created by
atomic weapons (the high radiation of the
moon should also be considered in light of this
theory).
10 . The Puzzle of the Moon's Strange
Magnetism: Early lunar tests and studies
indicated that the moon had little or no
magnetic field. Then lunar rocks proved upon
analysis to be strongly magnetized. This was
shocking to scientists who had always
assumed that the rocks had "some very
strange magnetic properties...which were not
expected." NASA can not explain where this
magnetic field came from.
11 . The Puzzle of the Mysterious "Mascons"
Inside the Moon: In 1968, tracking data of the
lunar orbiters first indicated that massive
concentrations (mascons) existed under the
surface of the circular maria. NASA even
reported that the gravitational pull caused by
them was so pronounced that the spacecraft
passing overhead dipped slightly and
accelerated when flitting by the circular lunar
plains, thus revealing the existence of these
hidden structures, whatever they were.
Scientists have calculated that they are
enormous concentrations of dense, heavy
matter centered like a bull's-eye under the
circular maria. As one scientist put it, "No one
seems to know quite what to do with them."
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