Earth's Second Moon, Lilith
In 1898, a scientist in Hamburg announced that Earth had a second moon, dark and almost invisible. Astrologers still use it today.
What was reported
In 1898, Georg Waltemath, a German scientist in Hamburg, claimed to have found a second, small moon of Earth, much further away than our Moon and so dark that it could only be seen in rare conditions. He predicted when it would cross in front of the Sun, and some people said they had seen it.
Astronomers couldn't find it. But in 1918, an astrologer named it Lilith, after a figure from Jewish folklore, and it was taken up in astrology as the 'Black Moon'.
Explanations offered
No second moon of this kind exists; it would be easy to find with modern telescopes. In astrology, 'Black Moon Lilith' is now usually used to mean an imaginary point in the Moon's orbit rather than a real object. Earth does sometimes capture tiny temporary 'minimoons'.
- When
- Claimed in 1898
- Where
- Hamburg, Germany
- Witnesses
- A German astronomer, then astrologers
- Status
- Never existed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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