The Dark Side of the Moon by Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna - September 6, 2017
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What inspired the discussion about the dark side of the moon?
Without further ado, tonight's speaker is Dr. Jeff Andrews Hanna. Jeff got his bachelor's at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and his PhD at one of my favorite universities, since it's my PhD alma mater as well, Washington University in St. Louis. And tonight, Jeff is going to be talking about the dark side of the moon, or do you believe in gravity, right?
Sure. All right. Thanks, Tim, for the introduction.
Thank you.
Thank you. So I frame my talk around this idea of the dark side of the moon, which is something that comes up a lot in pop culture. We see this quite a bit beginning with, of course, Pink Floyd's famous album, The Dark Side of the Moon, in which I'm told that they were referring to lunacy rather than lunar science. It's a little bit of a subtle distinction, if you ask me. But since then, the dark side of the moon comes up a lot in popular culture. oftentimes symbolizing the mysterious and the unknown. Recently we saw this in the latest Transformers movie, Dark of the Moon, where the dark side of the moon, this unknown, unexplored place where the Transformers had a secret military base and they're waiting to take over the Earth.
Because anything could be there on the dark side of the moon. I mean, really, who knows? People love conspiracies, especially conspiracies involving NASA. So I'm going to show you this secret image I'm not supposed to show you, revealing the dark side of the Moon. This is a very grainy image. And the reason why it's grainy is because all conspiracy theories have to revolve around a grainy image. And also because this image of the Moon was taken from Mars. And this is an actual image of the Moon and the Earth. And in this image that NASA doesn't want you to see, because they've been hiding the fact for decades, that not only does the moon have a dark side, but the Earth has a dark side too. That's right, I don't want anyone to panic, but as I speak and as you sit here and listen,
We in Tucson are hurtling towards the dark side of the Earth at a speed of about 1,000 miles per hour. And literally, if you could look out the window, you would see the landscape being plunged into darkness. And it would stay that way until about 6 a.m. tomorrow morning when your alarm goes off, you get up, you walk the dog, you make breakfast, you go to work or school or whatever, and you repeat every 24 hours. Because, well, of course the moon has a dark side, and of course the Earth has a dark side, but Really, it's the night side, not the dark side. We've got a night side and a day side, and they change on a daily cycle as the sun rises and the sun sets. There's nothing mysterious about it. Pink Floyd doesn't write songs about the dark side of the Earth.
How does pop culture influence our understanding of the moon?
There's not a secret Transformers base on the dark side of the Earth. It's just nighttime there, and we'll be there shortly. And the same is true of the moon. So the moon has a far side that's always facing away and a near side that's always facing the Earth. And I think in popular culture, people confuse the idea of the far side of the moon with the dark side. But in reality, because the moon always faces the same side at the earth, an observer on the moon would actually, it would always see, they'd always see the earth staying in the same place in the sky, but they'd see the sun rising and setting as the moon orbits the earth. And it would rise and set on about a 28 day cycle instead of our 24 hour cycle on the earth.
So if this is a little disappointing that the moon doesn't have a permanently dark side that's vast and mysterious, to make it even worse, the night side of the moon isn't really all that dark. This is a picture from the most recent solar eclipse that a friend of mine took. He went up to where it was a total eclipse. And if you could take your eyes away from the beautiful solar corona to the dark hole in the middle, that's the moon covering up the sun. And specifically, that's the night side of the moon covering up the sun. And if you look closely, even in the lighting in this room, you can actually see details on the night side of the moon.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What inspired the discussion about the dark side of the moon?
0:00–2:43
2
How does pop culture influence our understanding of the moon?
2:43–14:31
3
What is the difference between the dark side and far side of the moon?
14:31–26:58
4
How do scientists study the interior of the moon?
26:58–34:27
5
What role does gravity play in understanding the moon's structure?
34:27–53:39