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From “On the Hazards of Lycanthropy and Lunar Exploration,” by Philip Plait, Astronecronomical Institute. Submitted to the Journal of Astronomy and Metaphysics October 2023*
We are now pretty deep into the spooky period, with Halloween correct around the corner. Not only that, but tomorrow night (October 28) is the entire moon, so what better time is there to go over the werewolf problem—or, as it’s known in the scientific literature, the lycanthropic basic principle?
We are all acquainted with the lore. Werewolves transmogrify to lupine variety throughout a complete moon and crave the hunt, primarily when people are the prey. The facts will need not be delved into right here. For additional scholarly information, take note Waggner, 1941, Landis, 1981, and, in particular for the affliction in young victims, Daniel, 1985.
Hypotheses abound on the scientific basis of the transform, but regrettably, empirical reports are number of. (This is unsurprising, provided the mortality level for observers.) Health-related journals sometimes publish speculative function on the biology of the lycanthropic transformation, but once again, hard details are sparse. This challenge is designed worse by the actuality that specimens attained immediately after loss of life revert to human kind, which irrevocably alters the DNA and biochemistry of any retrieved samples.
But right here we will look into the astronomical foundation of the metamorphosis—specifically, the purpose of the moon—and then tackle its implications in the coming days of the Room Age. We are not proposing any certain methods but merely wish to fire the imagination of other scientists to probably encourage them to pursue these issues even further.
The moon is a rocky spherical body, about 3,474 kilometers in diameter. It orbits Earth at a length of 384,000 kilometers on normal and will take a minimal extra than 27 times to do so. As it orbits, its “phase” variations that is, the part of it we see lit by the solar waxes and wanes more than the system of a thirty day period. (The phrase “month,” we need to notice, is derived from the word “moon” simply because of the approximate period of time of the moon’s orbit.)
For the reason that this is at the coronary heart of the werewolf concern, enable us get a second to analyze this phenomenon. The stage of the moon is dependent on geometry: the angle fashioned by the moon, the sunlight and Earth. When the moon is in between our planet and the solar, we see the unlit facet of it, the “night” side. We say at this time that the moon is new. A 7 days later on, when it has traveled somewhere around 90 degrees (1 fourth) of the way all over Earth, we see just one half lit and 1 50 percent dark. This is named the to start with quarter moon, in deference to its orbital situation. Incidentally, the obvious dividing line among day and night on the moon is termed the terminator (see Cameron, 1984).
Equally, two weeks immediately after the 1st quarter, it is three fourths of the way around its orbit. We see it yet again half lit, but the formerly lit fifty percent is now dark, and vice versa. This is called 3rd quarter. A week afterwards it is new once once more, and the cycle repeats.
Of course, of finest problem to us is the period when the moon is midway about its orbit following it is new, reverse the sunlight in the sky. We see the lit fifty percent facing us with the overall hemisphere totally illuminated: for this reason, the entire moon.
And herein lies the trouble. We know this triggers the beastly conversion. It continues to be unclear, on the other hand, not only why but underneath particularly what conditions the moon has this effect. To wit: Just how comprehensive need to the moon be?
When we say the moon is full, in a demanding feeling, it is not. For that to be legitimate, it would have to lie straight on a line with Earth between it and the sunlight, and when that happens, we get a full lunar eclipse! From the moon’s vantage stage, Earth would block the sunshine, leaving the moon in Earth’s whole shadow. Although we have no direct observations to validate the strategy, well known lore indicates the werewolfian improve only occurs when the moon seems entirely lit, which might exclude any impact during an eclipse.
So when we say the moon is entire, it is in fact not just opposite the sunshine in the sky but offset by a small amount—generally talking, a couple of levels. This raises an fast issue: How considerably from completely comprehensive can the moon be and nonetheless set off the werewolfification? 5 degrees? Ten? By eye, the moon can appear very whole a working day just before and soon after it actually reaches that apex, when it is as substantially as 13 degrees absent from opposition. This implies an clear experiment: measuring the specific time the human-to-werewolf alter takes place and hence the actual period of the moon.
There could be confounding aspects. Do clouds impact the transformation? What if the target is deep underground or encased in a lead-lined room—or, maybe, on the reverse side of Earth when the moon is in the correct phase to result in the lupinosity? Would they then change only at moonrise, throughout twilight (Hardwicke, 2008) or later on in the night (Giacchino, 2022)? These components would all need to be tested and weighted—leading, a single hopes, to a far better understanding of the significant physical impetus of this modify.
There is some urgency to uncovering these forces.
At this time, NASA, collectively with the European and Canadian room agencies, is presently executing a plan to return people to the moon right after a 50 percent-century hole in its exploration. This laudable aim arrives with no little chance, but a person simple threat is perhaps not taken very seriously adequate: What if anyone on one particular of these flights is stricken with lycanthropy?
The odds of this are very low but perhaps not zero. Only 24 humans were despatched to orbit and land on the moon in the course of the heady periods of the Apollo missions it is a smaller sample, but even now, we undoubtedly dodged a (silver) bullet.
Collectively, NASA’s Artemis plan and supplemental around-upcoming lunar exploration ideas from other nations could see a lot of dozens far more persons despatched. Had been these initiatives to spawn crewed circumlunar habitats or surface outposts, the amount of people all around or on the moon at any offered time could reach into the hundreds. The dangers of even one particular of them currently being a werewolf are so obvious they want not be expounded upon.
On the other hand, we really don’t know if staying basically in call with the lunar floor would amplify the results in unpredicted ways or possibly negate them so fully that they wouldn’t be an problem. We can conjecture that a werewolf transformation is triggered by the moon as a human body on the complete totally reflecting daylight staying physically on it could suggest the effects are minimized or nullified.
On the other paw, soon after the every month sunrise, the whole landscape surrounding our potential lycanaut will be lit by the sunshine, which could then trigger the adjust from their check out, the total moon would be illuminated, so it would be, by some definition, entire. This could suggest that the danger would be massively amplified simply because the transformation would not final a mere terrestrial night time but an complete lunar working day, which is two months in duration. The carnage would be basically unearthly.
1 shudders to assume of what havoc could unfold on a crewed room station in lunar orbit. A typical lunar satellite orbital peak is 100 kilometers over the area. This kind of an orbit would take about two hours, with, on average, nearly 50 percent of it over the unilluminated hemisphere, but obversely, that similar quantity of time would be invested about the sunlit 50 percent. This means that an afflicted human could adjust from human to monstrous canid and back once again every two several hours, being in wolf variety for a entire hour at a time. In the enclosed volume of a small station, this would undoubtedly guide to mayhem.
Either on the lunar surface area or earlier mentioned it, a transformation would unquestionably lead to a complete loss of mission.
And what of Mars, to which NASA presently has forged its eyes? Would our poor Martian astronaut suffer improvements each time its moons are whole? Is it attainable that the phases of our planet’s moon have an effect on them as very well but at a decreased power due to the fact of the good length, this sort of that they only have to have to shave rather far more aggressively and potentially stifle cravings for unusual steak?
One particular can only consider the chaos of checking out Jupiter and Saturn, which have 95 and 146 verified moons at this time, respectively, and most likely hundreds extra nevertheless to be found.
It is for this very motive that we set out this get in touch with to both of those the astronomical and organic communities. We need to recognize the lunar affect on the werewolf and also obtain some way to both block or quit it entirely. We must examine the possibility of using silver-lined area capsules and the hydroponic cultivation of wolfsbane. I’m certain additional possible modalities can be formulated as additional scientists and room agency officials grow to be conscious of the urgent requirement.
There will come a working day when we will have to just take action, and we should really be prepared. To reiterate Brooks, 1974, we do not want to respond to the problem “Werewolf?” by pointing at the moon and replying, “There, wolf.”
References
The Wolf Male. Directed by George Waggner. Universal Shots, 1941.

Younger Frankenstein. Directed by Mel Brooks. 20th Century Fox, 1974.

An American Werewolf in London. Directed by John Landis. Common Pictures, 1981.

The Terminator. Directed by James Cameron. Orion Photographs, 1984.

Teen Wolf. Directed by Rod Daniel. Atlantic Releasing Corporation, 1985.

Twilight. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Summit Amusement, 2008.

Werewolf by Night time. Directed by Michael Giacchino. Marvel Studios, 2022.
*Editor’s Observe (10/27/23): All scholarly details falls within the ghostly realm of fiction and Halloween enjoyment.
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