Moon, earth's only natural satellite mysteriously disappeared from the skies in May 1110. Interestingly, this disappearance of the moon was not like any other lunar eclipse where the borders of the moon will be visible in the naked eye, instead, the natural satellite completely vanished from the sight of humans living on the earth.
What caused the moon to disappear from skies?
For nearly 1,000 years, scientists have been trying to figure out the reason behind the mysterious disappearance of the moon from the skies. But now, after analyzing the ice cores embedded deep within the ice sheets, scientists believe they now have the answer behind this creepy event.
Scientists discovered sulphur aerosols from the ice cores, and researchers believe that this could be an indication of a series of volcanic eruptions that happened in the earth. These volcanic eruptions pumped an immense load of dust and sulphur to the atmosphere.
In the meantime, a lunar eclipse happened in 1110, and it made the atmosphere look darker than never before. The layer of ashes in the atmosphere covered the moon, and due to the lunar eclipse, earth's natural satellite completely went out of sight.
"Here we show that a unique medieval observation of a 'dark' total lunar eclipse attests to a dust veil over Europe in May 1110 CE, corroborating the revised ice-core chronologies. Furthermore, careful evaluation of ice core records points to the occurrence of several closely spaced volcanic eruptions between 1108 and 1110 CE. The sources of these eruptions remain unknown, but we propose that Mt. Asama, whose largest Holocene eruption occurred in August 1108 CE and is credibly documented by a contemporary Japanese observer, is a plausible contributor to the elevated sulfate in Greenland," wrote the researchers in the study report.
Formation of the moon
NASA, the United States space agency believes that studying planetary collisions can provide valuable information regarding the formation of the moon in the ancient days. Many space experts believe that a massive object, as big as the Mars collided with the earth, which sent chunks of debris into space. One of these space junks coalesced into another cosmic object that became Earth's Moon.
