Did You Know? Five monks from Canterbury reported to the abbey’s chronicler, Gervase, that shortly after sunset on June 18, 1178, they saw “two horns of light” on the shaded part of the Moon. In 1976 the geologist Jack B. Hartung proposed that this described the formation of the crater Giordano Bruno. Modern theories predict that there would be a plume of molten matter rising up from the surface of the Moon, which is consistent with the monks’ description. In addition, the location they recorded fits in well with the crater’s location. Additional evidence of Giordano Bruno’s youth is its spectacular ray system: because micrometeoritesconstantly rain down, they kick up enough dust to quickly (in geological terms) erode a ray system. So there is probably enough circumstantial evidence to hold that Giordano Bruno was formed during human history. LEARN MORE.
