Instant Genius Podcast: Has the Moon entered a new epoch?

Here's how humans could have changed the lunar surface forever.

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Photo credit: BBC Science Focus

Noa Leach

Published: January 12, 2024 at 8:00 am

In our short history of space exploration, humans have already changed the Moon significantly. From the cultural heritage of our first footprints to the damage caused by spacecraft crashes, our presence is almost frozen in time in the Moon’s dusty regolith.

Now, researchers are arguing for the formalisation of a new epoch on the Moon: the lunar Anthropocene.

This epoch, they argue, began in 1959 with Russia’s Luna 2 spacecraft becoming the first ever to land on the Moon. We spoke to one of the researchers, space archaeologist Dr Justin Holcomb at the University of Kansas in the US, to learn more.

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Noa Leach

News editor, BBC Science Focus

Noa Leach is the News Editor at BBC Science Focus. With an MPhil degree in Criticism & Culture from the University of Cambridge, Noa has studied cultural responses to the climate crisis, wildlife, and toxicity. Before joining BBC Science Focus, Noa was the Editor of The Wildlife Trust BCN’s magazine Local Wildlife. Her writing has been shortlisted for the Future Places Environmental Essay Prize.
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