Name: Why the moon is still such a mystery | BBC Ideas
Uploaded: 2020-12-16T19:15:55.000Z
Duration: 3 min 40 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Influencing many aspects of our culture, thought and being.

Ever-present in design, art, music, science, technology, religion,

The ancient Mesopotamians would speak of Nanna,

the god of the Moon and creator of all things.

While a present day cosmologist might describe

the stabilising influence of our Earth's tilt.

And most of us picture the Moon as being closer than it actually is.

Strangely, the Sun is 400 times further away from the Earth

Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov described this natural quirk as

'the most unlikely coincidence imaginable.'

Notably, 108 is an auspicious number for Hindus

who count 108 marma points, or sacred places in the body.

Many believe the Moon affects our bodies.

We know its push and pull affects the tides

and we are organic creatures made largely of water

who evolved in an ecosystem reliant on this celestial neighbour.

What about the Moon's effect on our state of mind?

The word lunacy is derived from the Latin word lunaticus,

Statistics do show a consistent rise in crime rates around a full moon.

Scientists prefer to attribute this to convenient light levels

And it's not only our minds in question -

the perceived connection between fertility and the cycles of the Moon

Perhaps that's just because the lunar and menstrual cycles

In the ancient world, the Moon was generally personified as male

with the shift to female deities and ideas happening more recently,

If the Moon is female, there has been no shortage of historical characters

to harness this elusive beacon of the natural world.

So it's nice to hear Nasa has just announced an initiative

aptly-named Artemis, after Greek god Apollo's twin sister.

with some seeing her as a harbinger of doom.

The Maori people call the Moon Hina, the man-eater,

Then there's the melancholic reflective Moon.

as we adjusted to the brave new world of science and discovery,

artists became increasingly focused on our place in the natural world.

Paintings from the likes of Caspar David Friedrich

their backs to the viewer in quiet reflection.

Finally in July 1969, we successfully landed two men on the Moon

and we discovered what she'd been silently gazing upon

Male, female, a life support system, or a bringer of death?

Inducer of madness, a conspiracy, a symbol of peace?

Embodying all the light and shade of human experience.

It seems the Moon is whatever we choose to see -

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Why the moon is still such a mystery | BBC Ideas

perceive

present

constant

ancient