h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Last night's eclipse got me and a group of friends thinking: It says in the Bible (Joel 2:31) that before the Lord comes the moon shall be turned to blood.
Leaving aside religion, supposing the moon were to be turned to blood tomorrow - what would happen? Would one get a big sphere of blood in orbit around the earth, would the moon then try to fall to earth... what?
any ideas?

Well - it would freeze mostly, except where it is in the sun, where it would boil. Since blood is mostly water, this steam would create an atmosphere around the moon which would trap the heat and either result in a stable atmosphere or a runaway greenhouse effect.
Probably....

I think they meant the colour of the moon turning blood red, which it did last night. Bearing in mind Christ is supposed to come again 2000 years after his birth (approx.) which is around about now, I'm making sure I've got clean underwear on just in case!!

hmmm... a red satellite with an atmosphere....

According to our calendar Jesus was never born - as the year he is said to have been born in (the year between 1 BC and 1 AC) does not exist...

I liked the color of the moon last night though

Yep, nice colour. Maybe they should keep it?

I'll forward your request to our local tourist bureau

There was a spoof story some years ago that a major soft drinks manufacturer was going to launch a huge orbiting sphere of coloured film which would filter the moon's light and thus be the world's largest advert. Pity it was a spoof mind - could have been interesting

Ta!

If the moon changed to blood, exactly what would happen depends on how it changed.

Blood has the same density as water, while moon rock is about 3 times as dense as water. So if the moon turned to an equal volume of water, then it would suddenly become much lighter. This would mean that its gravitational pull on the Earth would lessen. Since the earth and the moon spin about a common point (which is inside the Earth), the Earth would be flung outwards. The distance between the Earth and Moon would increase slightly so that the moon would appear to shrink, and the tidal effect of the moon on the earth's oceans. The tides would start to be dominated by the sun instead of the moon.

If the moon suddenly turned to an equal mass of blood, then it would suddenly increase in diameter. This would make it reflect more light, so moonlight would become brighter. Moon rock is dark grey in colour, despite the fact that it looks white. So blood would probably reflect about the same amount of light. We would suddenly have a larger red moon brightening the sky.

I vote for "the moon suddenly turning into an equal mass of blood".

Cool visual.

Mostly

When the americans got to the moon they discovered the russians had been there first and painted the surface red. Rather despondantly they called mission control and asked what to do. Mission control told them to take out a can of white paint, put a wavy strip across the middle and add the words Coca Cola to it...

Where did the story about the moon and Coca-Cola come from? Arthur C Clarke wrote a short story long ago (1950s?) in which a scientific experiment was carried out on the Moon. Ionised gas was shot into the Moon's (extremely rarified) atmosphere. The sun's rays caused this to glow so that the gas cloud could be seen from Earth. Of course, someone modified the device so that it spelled out Coca-Cola.

Don't know about that. I heard it as a joke years ago.

have you thought about that in Marin Zimmer Bradley´s books about Darkover there is also a big red moon? Or wait, was it a sun? tsss, can´t remember but does anybody know what it is and if this phenomena is ever explained?

Actually, it says in the Bible that Jesus will come back during the lifetime of the apostles, so I guess he's already been and gone. History seems to have missed the apocalypse... the closest thing to it would have been the Jewish Revolt at around 65CE... hardly a worldwide conflagration. Very disappointing.

Personally, I find the Ragnarok story of the Fenris Wolf swallowing the moon as a signal to begin the final confrontation between the minions of Loki and the warriors of Valhalla to be a far greater possibility...

as we're being colourful why not go for "Blue Moon Rising " by Simon Green. the moon changing is always baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad............

FABT

"I see a bad moon rising..."

I've never seen a bad moon yet!
That eclipse was really something, wasn't it?
Here's to the next celestial event!
~Galaxy Babe~ {Muse of Astral Delights}

Oooh, baby! You're making me see stars!