What if the Moon Was Habitable?

the sky once again turns a shade of orange and yellow across the forest lights shine below the canopy of pine trees the festival to the moon goddess is about to begin slowly its image appears in the night sky a world of blue seas and green islands to these ancient people the moon is not a white and gray cratered body but a habitable world even if for thousands of years humans will never touch it it will inspire myths legends and shape the way that people view the cosmos around them this is an alternate scenario where the moon is a living world okay i know this is a crazy idea usually when these alternate timelines involving geography are discussed it comes with a small kernel of truth from the past the sahara at one point was green antarctica was full of marsupial life and not an icy continent but the moon at least as far as our current understanding of it is was never like earth or even mars some papers have suggested that perhaps the moon very briefly had an atmosphere three billion years ago maybe even a magnetic field yet without literally checking the surface for ourselves we'll never know even if it did tidal locking with the earth stopped the rotation of the moon its magnetic field disappeared and thanks to radiation from the sun so too did any atmosphere it might have had that and since it's just so small any gases it did have simply dissipated in the space gravity is important kids so yes everyone i indeed do know such an alternate timeline is bonkers but we're in a bonkers time let's remove the science from this idea and just go with it let's just assume one of those ships from spores seated it with a life bomb yeah that makes sense in this alternate timeline the moon is a world that is very much like the earth a thick atmosphere an ocean and potential for life just from these conditions though it doesn't mean the moon has to be a world of greens and blues even for the earth early in its history when it had single-celled life the oceans weren't the blue that we know today too much oxygen led to the water itself actually rusting and millions of years later bacteria blooms gave the ocean a purplish hue or say if there is life without plants that specifically evolved to contain chlorophyll and reflect away green light which is how plants have their color we could see alternate landscapes where the fauna is purple or even orange it all depends on what exactly the makeup of the moon's atmosphere is and what organisms are most successful so why bring this up humans are visual creatures we attribute certain feelings to different colors in most major cultures throughout the world have included some reverence or worship of the moon since the very first hunter-gatherers so the way that ancient humans would view the moon depends entirely on the composition and color of its surface something that doesn't shift borders or states but does change the countless myths and pantheons that have existed even if just by a bit say the moon's oceans are red and its land is barren the moon is viewed far more negatively cultures could say that it's a destination of those poor unfortunate souls or even the home to dark gods but if the oceans are blue and its land is green the moon could be viewed as the physical home of the gods a distant paradise that can be achieved by warriors or even a literal deity in itself appearances are everything is what i'm saying yeah that's interesting and all but what really is the main effect is another form of myth how humans view themselves in the context of the heavens yes we all know about the debate between the earth in relation to the sun but up until modern times even the planets themselves weren't viewed as actual worlds like our own the best we knew of them was that they were just distant balls of light that moved differently compared to the stars the ancient greeks for instance believed that planets were made of incorruptible material a part of the heavens and the reason the moon was different was because it was a part of the earthly realm but if the moon resembled earth or ancient people at least recognized that it looked similar to the place they live that perspective might change they could have an opinion in a way that's more accurate but also less so that the planets and places apart from the earth could maybe be just as real as the world they live on stories and legends about other cultures and people that live in the heavens of course this varies depending on the culture so let's assume everything progresses as normal up until people can actually land on this alternate moon the urge to do so is certainly greater than in our own timeline so whoever lands first what could they see perhaps however you'd imagine life on the moon is entirely up to your own imagination there is no basis for how these organisms may look so imagine some pure speculative evolution what forms of life could take place in an environment a third of the earth's gravity for example every vertebrate land animal has two arms and two legs not only because terrestrial organisms evolved from some distant ancestor that had two arms and two legs but because on earth's gravity this is the most successful way of getting around but in the moon's weak gravity life doesn't need to follow the same general body plans we take for granted two arms and two legs for instance certainly don't need to be the norm taller thinner species with less appendages could get along just as fine in their own small gravity larger plant life however it may look could grow far taller there could be ways of flying about not even needing what we think of as wings i know i'm throwing a lot out there but this is something very real to consider when speculating how life on other planets could operate it's just in this scenario those organisms live right on our front door instead of light years away yes this would bring about a lot of questions and have a lot of answers but that's greater philosophy stuff we all know that if the moon was basically a miniature earth concept of life on other worlds isn't going to be the main focus of actual nations nah the only thing humans really care about most of all is that there is a place with abundant land resources and a good position to one up their rivals the race to create better technology to get to the moon and protect said colonies and resources space even in our immediate neighborhood instantly becomes militarized the perspective that our society currently has on space travel spread out for the betterment of mankind explore new worlds for science and knowledge this is going to sound pessimistic but that only exists because we don't have the current technology to build massive bases or extract specific valuable resources from far off worlds only difference in this scenario is the space race doesn't end once man lands on the moon the floodgates are now opened the new world colonization pumped up to 11. so why would the moon be so important outside of petty rivalries even in our timeline it's one of the most valuable pieces of land in the solar system for humans one of the most expensive barriers to space travel is just leaving earth's gravity fuel is expensive however if a nation did say have a moon base the investment right off the bat is expensive however it'd make launching ships to other planets far cheaper and easier even if the moon in this scenario does have an atmosphere the moon will become something like a giant harbor at first a stepping stone for future colonization of mars in what was once simply a mysterious place orbiting the earth becomes another center of competition i'll leave it at that because like i said such a scenario is crazy just the simple change in appearance of the moon directly impacts the stories that humans tell themselves the race in the space would be less a collective effort and more the same drive for conquest we've always seen maybe it's a good thing our moon isn't seen as the most attractive piece of property our exploration of far-off places as of now is still in the name of science and discovery it's one to ponder imagining how instead of seeing a cratered ball of white and grey we'd instead see an entire alien world in the night sky a tease of what could be to come this is cody of alternate history hub oh boy being locked inside sure is a lot easier while being online you'd think so wouldn't you but your identity might not be please stop breaking into my house this video was sponsored by nordvpn go to nordvpn.com altis to get 70 off a three-year plan plus one extra month for free i'm not gonna ask what nordvpn is you already can't well i'm glad you asked nordvpn is a virtual private network a service that has thousands of servers in 60 plus countries using it is simple just log on and browse the internet in safety without fear of your privacy being violated i'm leaving i'll take my chances outside it's available on not just pc and mac but also apple and windows phones as well 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Channel: AlternateHistoryHub

Views: 873,751

Rating: 4.95047 out of 5

Keywords: Moon, Moon exploration, space travel, what if the moon was green, what if the moon was habitable, alternatehistoryhub, alternatehistoryhub moon, moon colonization, apollo 11, moon gods, moon myths, astronomy, alternate history, habitable moon, what if the moon had an atmosphere, moon terraforming, terraforming

Id: Rrh3udGhzuU

Length: 10min 58sec (658 seconds)

Published: Fri May 01 2020