On October 6, we had a full moon that was referred to as the Hunter’s Moon or the Blood Moon. The many stages of the moon have always fascinated me. Perhaps this is because I spent many nights sitting in my vehicle, while on night patrol, watching for game violators.

The moon is about 2,160 miles in diameter and travels 238,857 miles as it completes one revolution around the Earth. Moonlight is simply sunlight reflected off the moon toward the Earth. The side of the moon toward the sun can become as hot as 250 degrees. The dark side can reach 243 degrees below zero.

This must be similar to eating ice cream and drinking hot coffee at the same time. As a boy, I was often told that if you do this your teeth will crack, which made me wonder why the moon did not split in half with these extreme temperatures.

Most of us believe that we can see only half of the moon’s surface, however, due to the speed of its revolutions we can see 59% of the surface. No one had seen the remaining 41% until 1959 when a photograph of the back side of the moon was sent back from a Russian spacecraft.

Genesis 1:16 states the following:

“For God made two huge lights, the Sun and Moon, to shine down upon the earth — the larger one, the Sun, to preside over the day and the smaller one, the Moon, to preside through the night; he also made the stars.”

Their purposes were to distinguish day and night, to be signs by which humans got their bearings, as well as signs of judgment Matthew 24:29 to mark off the season and give light to the earth.

The moon is our closest heavenly body. Humans have always been in awe of it. Perhaps, this is why the Bible refers to the moon 49 times.

Although we find the moon and other planets inspiring, they still appear as a forbidden landscape. The more we explore the vast expanses of space the more we recognize that our planet Earth is an exceptional planet. Louise Young wrote in her book The Blue Planet, the Earth is “The garden of Eden of the Universe.”

There is no other piece of matter within a 100 billion miles that is so richly endowed with variety, beauty, dressed in magnificent and presenting ever-changing scenes.

Our word Earth appears in the first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1-1: “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.” Gaea was the Earth Goddess of the Ancient Greeks and was called Terra Mater (Earth Mother) by the Romans. The Greek word for world is Kosmos, which refers to part of the Earth, the whole of planet Earth or the entire universe.

The light from most heavenly bodies is bright even in the case of our moon of which the light is less intense but still bright. Only planets that hold an appreciable atmosphere turn the light that they reflect. This light is altered, softened and colored by its passage through various layers of vapor.

Our sky seen from the outside-in is a luminous band of blue above the Earth’s surface. The planet Earth would surely be called the blue planet if intelligent life searching the skies spotted us.

At one time, we thought there could be life on the planet Mars. With their telescopes trained on Mars, scientists thought there were canals and irrigation systems on the planet. As a young boy, I can remember being afraid of an invasion of men from Mars. Today, with better equipment, we now know that Mars does not have any form of life, that is unless it is microscopic and different from any life form on Earth.

However, we have learned that there is water, in a frozen state, at both poles on Mars.

Although man has walked on the Moon and sent spaceships, which have come close to other heavenly bodies and even landed on Mars and sent back pictures, we have not found any intelligent life. The United States government has spent millions of dollars sending radio signals into space searching for life and has never received an answer.

Finding out that there is no intelligent life in our universe has made us lonelier and wiser. Suddenly we are aware that the Earth is a very special and unique place in our universe.

Scientists have compiled a long list of things that must be just right for life to exist on Earth. We must be the right distance from the sun. If we were farther away, the planet would be too cool for a stable water cycle, and if we were closer, we would be too warm for a stable water cycle. The Earth must have just the right rotation. If our rotations were slower, the temperature difference between night and day would be too great. If the rotations were faster, the wind velocity would rise to catastrophic levels.

The size of our moon is also critical. The tilt of the Earth is stabilized in part by the pull of the moon. If we were tilted more or less, the surface temperature differences would be too great. The list is long: too fast, too slow, too red, too blue, too close, too far, too weak and too strong. Many items must be in the right order for life to exist on Earth.

Here is something for you to ponder. Our Earth is a tiny speck when compared with the whole universe, which consists of millions of stars. The Earth spins once around its axis daily at a speed of about 1,000 miles per hour. It travels around its orbit at a speed of nearly 67,000 miles per hour. Our solar system dashes through space in the direction of the constellation Virgo at about 43,000 miles per hour. We are moving in three directions at three different speeds and all at the same time.

While time marches on, our planet continues to spin on its path through space. We cannot question its destiny or know its numbered days. We cannot number the sands of the sea, the drops of rain or the days of eternity, only God knows these answers.

On Jan. 3, 2026, the moon will be at perihelion (the closest to Earth). So, put on your seat belt, sit back and relax and let Mother Earth take us on another journey through space.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.