Summary

The moon has been added to the World Monuments Fund’s (WMF) list of threatened heritage sites for the first time due to risks from commercial and governmental lunar activities.

The WMF highlights concerns about looting and damage to artefacts from Apollo missions, such as Neil Armstrong’s footprints and objects left on the moon.

WMF calls for international protocols to protect lunar heritage as private space tourism and missions increase.

The 2024 list also includes sites in conflict zones and areas endangered by climate change or unsustainable tourism.

  • Chainweasel
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    116 hours ago

    Without an atmosphere, how can you have smog and smoke?

    • @[email protected]
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      26 hours ago

      Not having an atmosphere doesn’t mean that gases and particles will simply vanish. The moon just doesn’t have enough of a gravitational pull to keep them around for long.

      • @SchmidtGenetics
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        5 hours ago

        You’re describing the act of something vanishing to be honest though.

        The moon doesn’t have enough gravity to hold an atmosphere, it’ll always vanish.

        • @[email protected]
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          -35 hours ago

          Over time yes. But not instantaneous. So depending on the amount, it is possible to have smog on the moon.

          • @SchmidtGenetics
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            25 hours ago

            Yes in the same way you can “survive” in the vacuum of space. The moon doesn’t have the gravity potential to hold an atmosphere, so while smog may “appear” it’s be gone just like the person who was alive in the vacuum of space for a few minutes as well.

            But that doesn’t mean people can and should claim People can live in the vacuum of space now does it?

            • @[email protected]
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              -25 hours ago

              I really don’t understand what you are trying to say here. Yes, the process of diffusion is faster on the moon, but even on earth every second lighter parts of the atmosphere escapes into space (and heavier particles that pass by are attracted by gravity).

              • @SchmidtGenetics
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                4 hours ago

                It’s not faster on the moon, there’s no restriction because of the lack of atmosphere.

                You need gravity for an atmosphere, and you need an atmosphere to hold other particles. Without both, you CANT have “smog”.

                Edit, your line of reasoning isn’t that you think it’s possible to terraform the moon or something is it?

                • @[email protected]
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                  -24 hours ago

                  But the moon has its own gravity field. Just not enough to keep a permanent atmosphere. Also, not having an atmosphere doesn’t mean the space above the surface is devoid of matter. In fact, even in interstellar space, you can find particles. And an atmosphere is not something that’s holding particles in. An atmosphere is made up of particles in a dense field gravitationally bound to a celestial body.

                  • @SchmidtGenetics
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                    4 hours ago

                    Not enough to keep ANY atmosphere. This is the part you are hung up on apparently.

                    Yes nebulae are visible because they are particles spread usually METERS apart, that’s only visible as a cloud THOUSANDS of light years away. If you were in the center of the nebulae it would be invisible from that perspective. Like being on earth and looking at the moon, there wouldn’t be enough density of particles to say, hey there’s “smog” there. Because the particles float away freely, unlike on earth. And they are also helped carried away by solar winds too. Which you know the atmosphere helps prevent on earth on other planetary bodies….

      • @[email protected]
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        65 hours ago

        The moon doesn’t have sufficient gravity to maintain an atmosphere. Any smog will float out into space, like helium on earth.

        • MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown
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          44 hours ago

          There is an atmosphere on the moon. It is very thin but it does exist. Gasses will mostly escape, but particulate (smoke, soot, dust, the components of smog that aren’t the fog part) may hang around for a while before settling to the surface.

          • @[email protected]
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            3 hours ago

            .0000000000000003 atm or 0.3 nanopascals of atmosphere.

            On Earth, this is considered to be a very good vacuum. In fact, the density of the atmosphere at the Moon’s surface is comparable to the density of some of the outermost fringes of Earth’s atmosphere, where the International Space Station orbits.

            the Moon is considered not to have an atmosphere because it cannot absorb measurable quantities of radiation, does not appear layered or self-circulating, and requires constant replenishment due to the high rate at which its gases are lost into space.

            I feel like saying the moon technically has an atmosphere is like saying an astronaut has an atmosphere if they farted in space sans spacesuit because some gas lingers around them.

            • @[email protected]
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              03 hours ago

              Except they won’t because the gravitational pull generated by a human body is so low that the gases expelled are likely moving faster than escape velocity.