The New Moon in the Sky

Is it a planet? No, it is our own Moon, terraformed. The seas have filled with water and there are jungles, clouds and polar caps. A small but fascinating world.

Terraforming is a concept from science fiction: adapting celestial bodies other than Earth in such a way that terrestrial life can flourish there.

Mars is often thought of as a terraforming candidate because, despite everything, that planet is the most like Earth. Yet terraforming Mars is a huge and complicated project, something for the distant future.

Making Venus habitable is an order of magnitude more problematic. And terraforming the Moon, even with technological advances bordering on magic, is considered impossible. Because even if you could give the Moon an atmosphere, with its low gravity, it is unlikely to last long.

So why make an artist impression of a Moon with seas, clouds and forests? Simply, as a thought experiment. Because it would radically change our night sky: no longer a silver-grey sphere but a multicoloured lantern. A walk in the moonlight would never be the same again.

And well, who knows what people will be capable of in the thirty-fifth century? Maybe at the time the Moon can be transformed in an instant into a surfer's paradise with huge waves and trees growing to the sky. If so, in the twenty-first century, we already have a nice picture of that miracle.