Cosmos/Moon/Effects of the Moon
Effects of the Moon
NASA's explanation of Moon light
According to NASA, The Moon does not make its own light (moonlight) they claim the light is actually reflected sunlight. At any moment, half of the Moon is brightly sunlit (this is the day side). The other half is in the dark (this is the night side). Throughout the month, as the Moon rotates and orbits, day and night occur on different parts of its surface. The Moon takes a whole month to complete one rotation. This means that lunar day and night are each about two Earth weeks long.
NASA's explanation of Moon weather
On the Moon, snow does not fall. Thunder never rolls. No clouds form in the pitch-black sky. “Weather” on the Moon means something completely different than it does on Earth. The lunar climate is dominated by temperature swings of hundreds of degrees, incoming space rocks of all sizes, and particles and energy traveling from the Sun and beyond. (Although, throughout time, the visible "craters" on the moon have never changed)
Sunlight plays a major role in lunar weather. Morning on the Moon brings scorching temperatures. After sundown, and in places that never see daylight, it’s ultra-cold and pitch-black. Solar radiation bakes the lunar surface, giving the landscape a “sunburn” and building up static electricity in the Moon’s outer layers. (Sounds like a good place to play golf)
NASA's explanation of Moon temperature
The temperature on the moon can reach a blistering 250° Fahrenheit (120° Celsius or 400 Kelvin) during lunar daytime at the moon's equator, and plummet to -208 degrees F (-130° C, 140 K) at night. In certain spots near the moon's poles temperatures can drop even further, reaching - 424° F (- 253°C or 20 K).
NASA says studying the Sun’s effects helps us to understand the Moon better. For example, when the Sun sets and night falls on the Moon, some spots cool down faster than others. These temperature variations hint at the rocks that lie on the lunar surface.
Scientists work together with robotic helpers like NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to create detailed maps of the Moon’s temperature, radiation environment, chemical signatures, and more. We use clues like these to learn what the Moon is like now and how it is evolving over time. (Wait, what? Where's the live stream of Earth from the moon? Where's the live stream of the Moon from the robotic helpers? Why do we only get CGI?)
Reality check
Even if you, for a moment, believe moon orbits around the earth; lit by a sun 93 million miles away, and having that light reflect down to the surface of the earth from an average of 238,855 miles away. How is it that rocks and dust on the moon can reflect light bright enough to read from at night? How come the rocks and dirt on earth don't reflect more light, considering the earth is closer to the sun at times?
If the moon was 238,000 miles away, why does the moon only light nearby clouds?
How does moon light have a cooling effect?
Effects of Moonlight
The light from the moon influences more than you might suspect, including animal behavior and farming.
Moonlight has a color temperature of 4100K, while sunlight has a higher color temperature of more than 5000K. Objects illuminated by moonlight don't look yellower to the eye. They look bluer. This holds for indoor scenes and for outdoor.
Effects on animals
Some animals simply see better at night or are aided by the light of the moon. In contrast, prey animals know that to be seen means to be eaten, so it's prudent to hide when the moon is bright. And just as moonlight can influence predator-prey schedules, it also can influence some mating behaviors.
Certain species of badgers mark their territory more during the new moon, but during the full moon, they mark territory less. One explanation for the difference is that badger mating rituals are lengthy, so mating in the brightness of a full moon would put copulating badgers in danger. As a result, these badgers lie low during bright nights and are more active during other phases of the moon.
Many species of coral spawn on or near the full moon. While other factors such as weather and water temperature also influence their spawning, the event occurs near a full moon.
Doodlebugs dig bigger holes around the full moon. This could be because of the increased activity of prey when the moon brightens the night sky, causing a greater chance of catching dinner.
Certain owl species become more active during the full moon, both in their mating calls and in showing off their feathers to potential mates. In one study of the Eurasian eagle owl, researchers found the owls' feathers may be more visible in the light of a brighter moon.
Veterinary emergency statistics
On busy nights throughout her career in emergency veterinary medicine, Dr. Raegan Wells would often hear staff members and colleagues wonder aloud, “It must be a full moon tonight.”
Wells, currently the chief medical officer at Emergency Animal Clinic in Phoenix, was skeptical of the notion that they were busier during a full moon, so she decided to take matters into her own hands to see if there was a correlation.
In 2007, Wells co-authored a retrospective study at Colorado State University that examined whether the volume of animal emergency room visits increased on the days of the full moon. The data was compiled of nearly 12,000 case histories of small animals, specifically dogs and cats, from 1992-2002 at the university’s veterinary medical center. Such emergency types include animal bites, epilepsy and trauma to name just a few.
Dr. Wells - "The results of the study were surprising"
While the specific day of the full moon did not see a higher caseload, Wells said the days surrounding a full moon, which they would call ”fuller moon days,” when the moon is in its waxing gibbous, full or waning gibbous state, were more pronounced.
Specifically, data indicated that the "risk of emergencies on fuller moon days was 23 percent greater in cats and 28 percent greater in dogs when compared with other days," according to a school news release.
Data from the study did not provide conclusive results for the increased number in visits although Wells did suggest one possibility.
On full moon nights, due to increased luminosity, some animals may stay out longer and remain more active, thus being more likely to be traumatized or injured, Wells and fellow researchers theorized.
Effects on plants
The "werewolf" plant Ephedra foeminea only puts out a sugary residue to attract pollinators during the full moon in July. Researchers have yet to understand exactly how the plant "knows" to follow the lunar cycle, but research shows there's a correlation. There is, however, disagreement among scientists that the shrub's pollination is related to the lunar cycle.
A University of Perugia, Italy study
While it may not be as widely recognized yet, it is becoming more clear that the moon also affects the flow of water through plants: sap moves more vigorously during the waxing phase as the moon grows to full, and slows down as the moon wanes to a thin morning crescent. [1]
Isabella Guerrini, at the University of Perugia in Italy, works in the department of agriculture studying plant and animal consciousness and its integration into ecological pattern and rhythm.
Indeed, fluid flows more full as the moon becomes full, slowing down as the moon wanes.
This, she explains, has important consequences for plant growth and pruning: vigorous, sappy plants will suffer if cut, harvested, or pruned close to the full moon. First off, leaking sap exposes the plant to disease and pest incursion. But furthermore, sap from a cut plant, now deprived of its primary outlet, will engorge smaller channels, where new buds are developing on side branches, and potentially rupture those channels leading to the death of the buds (a phenomenon known as “lunar burn”, because it was so often noted around the full moon). Less vigorous, less juicy plants, like ground-covers or vines, conversely may benefit from being cut when sap flow is strong: it will stimulate the development of side shoots and encourage fuller, branching growth.
Those who work with plants every day have noticed differences in moisture content, flavor (meaning chemistry), and more.
In Her personal experimentation, she concluded that flavor and phytochemical variation is most noticeable as part of a seasonal cycle, but moisture content (once variables such as rainfall are accounted for) is very closely tied to lunar cycles.
Water weight in a botanical sample can vary up to 10% between the days just before the full moon and the week before the new moon. This parallels what researchers have found in lumber: wood from spruce and chestnut, harvested in the last week of the moon phase, has the lowest water percentage and shrinks the least during drying.3 It is rumored that the wooden stilts upon which Venice was built all were harvested during the last few days of the moon cycle: less water and denser fibers means less susceptibility to rotting and parasites.
Effects on humans
Humans, of course, also rely on moonlight. We did this much more so before the creation of artificial light, but some things haven't changed entirely. Some farmers plant crops based on the lunar schedule. There's a debate among farmers about whether planting by the moon has any positive effect on crops but The Old Farmer's Almanac still offers a Gardening by the Moon calendar. The video above goes into detail about how that works.
Because the moon is so closely linked to life on Earth, it's difficult to know what's affected solely by the moon’s light and what's affected by additional factors, but its influence is undeniable. Why else would there be so many songs about it? For Example: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising [2]
Assessment of effects of moon phases and hospital visits
A paper on the "Assessment of effects of moon phases on hospital outpatient visits: An observational national study" [3] shows that a vast amount of literature has been conducted in this field for investigating the association of different lunar phases with mental health, physical health, various diseases and human reproduction.
The literature has mixed reviews in terms of association and non-association of diseases with lunar phases. Some studies have found the linkage of the birth month with neurological, reproductive, endocrine, immunological and inflammatory diseases in the lifespan. Similarly, some studies have found a link between the moon and psychiatric, neurological and vascular illnesses.
The results of our study identified diseases that have significant variations during different lunar phases (non-moon and moon phases) for outpatient visits in the hospital.
On the other hand, some studies have found non-correlation of lunar phases with the medical conditions ranging from cardiac arrest to mental pathologies. A Few reviews found insufficient evidence to support the relationship between lunar cycles and human biology, birth, health aspects and other related activities.
Menstruation cycles
Menstruation is a cyclical process, as are the phases of the Moon — from new moon to waning crescent. Little wonder, then, that poets, philosophers, and scholars have, over the centuries, drawn parallels between the two, suggesting that they might be connected.
The mystique of the Moon and that of female bodies — at a time when medicine was in its infancy — led Greek philosopher Aristotle to claim, in the 4th century before the common era, that:
“The menses tend to occur naturally during the waning moon. For this time of the month is colder and more humid because of the wasting and disappearance of the Moon.”
Age-old parallels between the menstrual cycle and the phases of the moon have likely also led to some females referring to their periods as “moon cycles” to this day.
Is there really a link between lunar cycles and menstrual cycles? In this Special Feature, we investigate. Synch or no synch? Popular belief and many works of literature suggest that there may be some synchronicity between menses and the phases of the Moon. However, that may be based on the similarity of duration between menstrual cycles and lunar cycles.
Effects on temperature
It seems this topic is controversial, the only case studies were labeled as "Flat-earthers" and denied the effect of moonlight as cooling.
"Null" temperature result study by Dr. Faulkner, saying it's a flat-earther claim
Dr. Danny R. Faulkner in January 9, 2019 said:
Flat-earthers often claim that moonlight has a cooling property. The results of three independent experiments that test this claim. The results of all three experiments disprove the claim that moonlight cools objects exposed to it. Not only is this claim not supported by carefully conducted experiments, it defies all that we know about the nature of light and energy. Furthermore, this claim has nothing to do with flat-earth cosmology, and easily could be jettisoned by flat-earthers without jeopardizing their model.
Dr. Faulkner further explained that this moonlight cooling theory originated from Eric Dubay (2014), and theorized it probably came from David Wardlaw Scott’s book on the flat earth.
Faulkner's expirements were done with a simple IR-thermometer experiment many times. He said he have had difficulty repeating the results claimed by flat earthers. Some of my experiments have been informal, while others have been more carefully conceived.
Dr. Faulkner's experiments were performed as follows:
- Temperature taken in moonlight with no canopy
- Temperature taken in moonlight with a canopy
- Temperature taken out of moonlight with a canopy
- Temperature taken out of moonlight with no canopy
Professor Hawkins claims the moon does influence the temperature According to the Guardian, The moon does influence the temperature here on Earth, although the old belief that frost is more likely during a full moon is unfounded. In an Article, Professor Ed Hawkins, Professor of Climate Science (NCAS) says:
"These lunar cycles can heat or cool the globe by about 0.04C at their extremes. That’s imperceptibly small to humans, but enough to influence climate change modelling. In particular, the effect may help explain an apparent slowdown in warming in the 2000s, and could fractionally increase warming in the 2030s.
The findings have yet to be confirmed, but this work provides an insight into the many complex factors that climate scientists have to deal with, and how they are working to account for every possible influence, even those that might at first seem like lunacy.[4] (Did you noticed the pure "climate change" nonsense there?)
Effects on temperature experiments
A YouTube channel called "FlatRocky" performs moonlight temperature tests and records his findings. He has over 200 videos of this being done. His findings are pretty clear that there is a temperature difference in direct moonlight vs. the shade of moonlight. [5]