According to scientists, changes were observed on the moon in early 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic… Weird, did you say weird?!
Scientists from the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India observed and found that our satellite’s nighttime temperatures had dropped significantly at 6 observation sites on the lunar side.
According to these scientists, whose information was relayed in a recent article in the journal MNRAS Letters (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society), this abnormal drop would be due to human inactivity during the confinement period imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. 19.
And yes, COVID-19 is still in the news, even several years after the pandemic. Indeed, this absence of pollution, radiation and heat produced by humans would have impacted the surface of the Moon and caused this nighttime drop in temperatures. The scientists also say that these results are proof that studying temperature variations on the Moon could provide them with a “stable platform for studying Earth’s radiation budget and global warming.”
Even without being a great specialist, the explanation may seem logical, but it would be good to deepen and support this study with observatories based on the Moon.
How does the earth’s radiation impact the moon?
The Sun emits radiation during the day, which impacts our planet, but also the Moon, and our atmosphere also reflects the Sun’s light into space and therefore partly onto the Moon.
When the Moon is hidden behind the Earth, it only receives radiation from our planet. Scientists have already demonstrated that these variations in the quantity of terrestrial radiation emitted by the Earth can influence the nighttime temperatures of the lunar surface.
Thus, during COVID-19 lockdown periods, human activities and associated pollution levels decreased significantly, causing a significant drop in the nighttime temperature on the Moon’s surface.
