This Would Have Been the Nineteenth Century’s Greatest Discovery
Excitement gripped America in the summer of 1835 when a New York newspaper, The Sun, announced the discovery of life and civilization on the Moon. In a series of six articles, the newspaper described how famous astronomer Sir John Herschel had used powerful telescopes to examine the heavens. What he saw upended all human knowledge to date. The astronomer’s accomplishments were truly stunning. “By means of a telescope of immense dimensions and an entirely new principle“, Herschel had discovered planets in other solar systems, and established new and revolutionary theories.
He had also “solved or corrected nearly every problem of mathematical astronomy“. All of that was just a tip of the iceberg: Herschel had discovered life on the Moon. Per The Sun, Herschel’s telescope revealed that the Moon teemed with life. From his observatory in the Cape of Good Hope, the astronomer saw oceans, rivers, and trees. A variety of animals roamed the lunar surface, including goats, buffalos, walking beavers, and unicorns. And flying above them all, were human-like creatures with bat wings who built houses and temples. It was just a funny and silly prank, but many swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.