On Moon

Moon has always fascinated humanity. Big mysterious disk that emerges at night, grows in size from a crescent to a full moon, then back to a crescent and disappears only to re-emerge as new moon. People used moon cycles to measure weeks and month. Some associated it with certain gods or goddesses. They gazed on its pale light and pondered over mysteries of the universe. Unlike sun that will burn your eyes if you stare at it too long, moon was something one can look at for hours and never tire of it.

Because of all that moon eventually developed a mystical reputation. Fiction used and enhanced it further and further. Gradually moon became a focal point of mystical and even spiritual depth.

When humanity learned how to reach space, one of the first places we wanted to visit was moon. We wanted to see for ourselves what this mysterious body on night sky is made of. Eventually Americans did that, and Buzz Aldrin made his preverbal small step on the surface of this celestial body.

The close investigation did dampen if not outright refuted all this history of moon pondering. Moon ended up a lifeless rock floating in space and its mysterious light is nothing more than a pale reflection of light of the sun. Over the course of his short stay Buzz Aldrin have not found any reasons to ever visit this rock again. Scientists who study rocks he brought with him was of a similar opinion.

Meanwhile telescopes found a lot of interesting on Venus, some on Mars and many more on satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. Science refocused its efforts on these celestial bodies instead.

Just like than moon ended it with two contrasting ideas of itself. One it a mystical body that fiction continues to perpetrate, and the other is a bland reality that it's one of the most boring objects in the Solar system.