The Fascinating Discovery Of Leonardo Da Vinci

His great inventions are not a novelty, but every time we are learning about new discoveries that continue to cause talk. The figure of Leonardo da Vinci is surrounded by mysteries, myths and legends, and also by investigations and objects that have been elucidated and perfected over time.

But, what is that great discovery that leads us to publish this article today? The truth is that, in the year 1500, Leonardo da Vinci solved a great mystery after studying for a long time: the brightness of the planet Earth.

He discovered that the brightness of the Earth can only be observed when there is a waxing moon and the Sun sets, that is, on the horizon. It is necessary to search between the tips of our satellite to see a ghostly image, as if it were full. Until da Vinci’s theory it was believed that it was the brightness of the moon that reflected on the planet, but it is the other way around.

The confirmation of the discovery

Everything could be verified later in time (about 500 years later), when the Apollo mission sent the first men to the satellite. Let’s think that in Leonardo’s time this was more difficult to prove (technologically it was impossible to make a trip to space), but he was still convinced of his hypothesis.

When the Sun sets on the Moon, the Moon darkens, but not entirely. There is still a light in the sky, which is neither more nor less than Earth. Our planet is the one that is in charge of illuminating at night, with a brightness 50 times stronger than that of the Moon when it is in its full phase. This produces an ashy glow that gives the satellite a ghostly air.

Let’s imagine for a moment that we are in the year 1500. We would need a really extraordinary ability to think the same as Leonardo da Vinci. It is that until that moment, the center of the universe revolved around the Earth.

And that idea continued for a few more decades. For example, in the middle of the 16th century, 24 years after Leonardo’s death, Nicolás Copernicus was refuted his hypothesis that the Earth revolved around the Sun and not vice versa (heliocentrism).

The genius of Leonardo da Vinci

But going back to Leonardo, he was the first to “look” as if he were sitting on the Moon with a telescope observing the Earth. Most people thought he was crazy, that this was impossible. But if there is something that this wonderful scientist had to spare, it was imagination. Just look at their notebooks to realize it.

The sketches of tanks, flying machines, diving suits and even a robot allow us to think that Leonardo was far ahead of his time. For him, the brightness of the Earth was a subject that kept him awake for a long time.

He was very interested in everything related to light and shadow, in his role as an artist or draftsman. When he was in his role as an engineer or a mathematician, his passion was geometry. The rest of the time I thought about how to travel to the Moon.

His theory

In Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester , from the year 1510, we find a page entitled On the Moon: no solid body is lighter than air . This indicates that you fervently believe that the Moon satellite has an atmosphere and oceans, that it is an excellent reflector of light, and that it was covered by a large amount of water.

Da Vinci was wrong on two points. First of all, that the Moon has no oceans. It was confirmed when the Apollo astronauts landed in the “Sea of ​​Tranquility” and walked on rock. In reality, the seas of the Moon are made of hardened lava and not water.

Second, the oceans are not the reason why sunlight reflects on Earth. It is the clouds that are responsible for this phenomenon. This was also witnessed by the crew of the spacecraft. They saw that the parts where there are oceans were dark and where there were more clouds, our planet glowed.

However, Da Vinci had understood the general of this idea and it set a precedent in history, as with most of his inventions. Humans are likely to travel to that site that covered much of Leonardo’s imagination 500 years ago.

NASA plans to send astronauts to the Moon in 2018 and they will stay there for weeks or months (those from Apollo 11 stayed for a couple of days). In the process they want to analyze the dusk and the halo of the Earth’s glow. Something that our beloved 16th century inventor would also have liked to do.