As I type this on Tuesday, March 2 a new moon is scheduled to materialise in Austral skies tomorrow, March 3, 2022 at 4:34am Canberra time. I may not go out to greet it at that very moment (although Putin's atrocities mean that sleepless nights are the norm and one may well be up and available for a pre-dawn walk) but will definitely take an appreciative interest in it.

And it is an appreciation deepened by an essay "The Moon Is Underrated" in the latest online Nautilus.

Back to the moon and science (for Nautilus is a science magazine) in a moment. First, though, to the moon and unscientific beliefs and to how astrologers say this new moon is an especially welcome one, bound to be the best one of the year, because it is a new moon in Pisces.

"Does your soul need soothing?" the cheery MindBodyGreen Mindfulness blog inquires.

"The emotionally transformative 2022 Pisces new moon opens the floodgates of healing and self-compassion. The 2022 Pisces new moon won't solve the horrors in Ukraine, but it can provide you with some self-soothing techniques in the face of [the Ukraine] situation beyond your control.

"Emotions are the domain of the watery sign of the fish, and the 2022 Pisces new moon provides both a reflecting pool and a chance to plunge into the depths of your own feelings. From that open state, divine guidance may flow in."

My new, deepened interest in the moon has nothing to do with taking these sorts of astrological plunges. As a typical Sagittarius (we are all sceptical, hard-headed and pro-science) I know astrology is nonsense, albeit sometimes enchanting nonsense. But one imagines there must have been many passionate disciples of astrology among the colourful anti-science host of those who descended on the federal capital city for the Convoy To Canberra extravaganza.

And while we are on the moon and with the Convoy no doubt lots of the Convoyers, conspiracy theory enthusiasts, choose to believe the so-called moon landing was a hoax.

They may be right but one indication that American men really were to be sent hurtling off in the moon's direction is the existence (discovered in archives 30 years later) of the 233-word speech prepared for President Richard Nixon to read to the world when and if Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were stranded on the moon and had be left there to die.

It begins: "Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace."

But of course moon-landing deniers will scoff that the speech, too, is a fake, and an artefact of the elaborate hoax.

And while with the Convoy, the news that ordinary Canberrans' taxes are going to have to meet the estimated $2 million costs of the policing of the Convoy, will knot the indignant knickers of Canberra burghers. But the same news gives this columnist a warm inner glow of liberalism. It delights me to be able to contribute somehow to the orderly staging of the Convoy's expressions of Australians' dear democratic rights to let off their varied and miscellaneous hot political steams. But back to the moon and to the Nautilus piece's reporting of new research showing how lucky we are, a privileged planet, to have it.

"The moon has been at the centre of timekeeping for millennia," Sean Raymond rejoices for Nautilus.

"It's at the origin of our months (formerly 'moonths'). Plus, the moon has a strong gravitational effect on Earth. The ocean's tides are mostly due to the moon. And the tilt of our planet's spin axis - which is responsible for the seasons - is stabilised by the moon. Without a moon as big as ours, it's possible Earth wouldn't have the sort of environment that's ideal for life to develop and evolve. From down here on Earth, we often take the moon for granted. Our moon is the most massive moon of any planet in the solar system relative to its parent planet."

How have we come to be blessed with this celestial companion that somehow makes bearable for us what would otherwise be the unbearable loneliness of space?

READ MORE:

The dominant theory is that the moon formed as a byproduct of a colossal impact of some hurtling body (the "impactor", perhaps a giant rock the size of Mars) with our proto-Earth. Once the dust had settled after that colossal wallop two bodies were left, Earth and the moon.

Now, Nautilus says, planetary scientists at the University of Rochester have released a new study of computer simulations of giant impacts to evaluate the probability of forming large moons. They've found the probability is slight indeed not just any impact will do. But our own celestial collision resulted was a kind of Goldilocks impact, just right for the creation of the planet/burly moon relationship we Earthlings enjoy and depend upon.

This is a good time, with the curse of our species' warlike and invading instincts on display yet again, to contrarily count our blessings and to fully appreciate the moon as perhaps the brightest and the best blessing of them all. One shudders to imagine, though, what the moon, enigmatic and tight-lipped observer of 50,000 years of Earthlings' everlasting inhumanities to Earthlings, must think of us.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: