Is the Moon really Made of Cheese?
Hi Kantin (Cantina) Im Joe!
On the first of April 2002 NASA has published a funny report, which is stated:
Using the new camera on the recently refitted Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have been able to confirm that the Moon is made of green cheese. The telling clue was,
the resolution of a numeric date after which the Moon may go bad. Controversy still exists, however, over whether the date resolved is truly an expiration date
or just a "sell by" date".
Of course the Moon is not made of green cheese,
but this old Aprils Fool joke got me curious to find out where this proverb came from.
I found that the Moon is made by green cheese was mentioned by John Heywood in 1546.
However we can found additional references in Shacklocks Hatched of Heresies (1565),
and in John Wilkins New Word book (1638).
This proverb is usually stated sarcastically, with the implication that a person must be either gullible or ignorant,
because if they believe that they'll even believe the moon is made of cheese.
Also the green word is not referring to the color of the cheese,
because it is a term for a fresh cheese,
but because all the early reference are used the green word,
it is likely that they used the word, to make this phrase sound more unbelievable.
But what would happen if the moon was made of cheese?
Because the density of most cheeses is about 1 g/cm,
which is third as dense as a moon-rock,
the cheese Moon bloat out to a new radius of 1615 mi (2600 km). The Cheese Moon would have a diameter of 3231.1 mi (5200 km).
The cheese in the mantle would separate into water and casein (protein).
And due to the planetary differentiation the water would rise up towards the surface,
while the denser casein being forced further downwards.
And it would break down to simpler product like Ammonia (NH3), Carbon (C), and Water (H2O).
As a result our Cheese Moon had a Carbon core.
Probably, the Carbon core would turned into a Graphite core.
So the Cheese Moon would be evolve into a strange Europe
or Titan like moon,
with dense Graphite core,
on the surface we could find deep oceans, and
a thick atmosphere.
Unfortunately there would be almost no leftover cheese. Which is a really bad news for Wallace.
Thanks for watching!