The Moon has long been a source of wonder and inspiration, captivating human imagination for centuries. However, alongside genuine fascination, it has also been a magnet for myths, misunderstandings, and even outright deception. One of the most extraordinary examples of this is the “Great Moon Hoax” of 1835—a Victorian tale so fantastical and convincingly crafted that it managed to fool a vast portion of the population and leave an indelible mark on the history of media and popular culture.

The Birth of a Spectacular Hoax

In August 1835, the New York Sun newspaper published a series of six articles that claimed groundbreaking astronomical discoveries about the Moon. According to the papers, the world’s leading astronomer, Sir John Herschel, had made astonishing observations from a remote field station in South Africa. Using a new, powerful telescope, he purportedly glimpsed a dazzling lunar world teeming with life forms unlike anything ever imagined: unicorns roamed the craters, beavers walked upright on their hind legs, and most shockingly, a species of bat-like humanoids called the “Vespertillo Homo” built temples, spoke, created art, and even engaged in public behavior deemed scandalous by Victorian standards.

The articles presented these claims with the trappings of scientific language and detailed descriptions that made the fantastic seem credible. The story was supposedly sourced from the Edinburgh Journal of Science, lending an air of legitimacy. The sensational tales captured the public’s imagination, and by some estimates, up to 90% of New Yorkers believed the reports were true.

The Men Behind the Moon Myth

The masterminds behind the hoax were Benjamin Day, the publisher of the New York Sun, and Richard Adams Locke, the paper’s editor and writer of the articles. Locke originally intended the series as satire. He sought to mock the prevalent astronomical and religious beliefs of the time—beliefs that assumed celestial bodies like the Moon must be inhabited because a benevolent God would not create empty worlds.

Locke was responding to a popular contemporary astronomer named Thomas Dick, a figure in the spirit of modern public science communicators like Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson. Dick famously speculated about billions of inhabitants on the Moon, projecting a universe populated with life to satisfy theological expectations. Locke’s satire exaggerated these ideas to absurdity, inventing creatures such as lunar man-bats, hoping to expose what he saw as the folly of mixing religious dogma with astronomy.

Victorian Society and the Power of Belief

What Locke failed to foresee was how earnestly the public would take his parody. Many readers were already primed by religious and scientific writings that implied intelligent life could be found beyond Earth. The newspaper articles echoed the language and worldview familiar to them. The fanciful stories were accepted wholesale, blurring the line between satire and news in an age when scientific literacy was limited and newspapers were becoming widely accessible thanks to innovations in printing technology.

This was also a time of great social and political turmoil. New York in the 1830s was rife with sharp divisions over issues like slavery, leading to riots and unrest. The Moon, then, represented an escape—a place of wonder beyond worldly strife. Religion was experiencing a revival, and many astronomers were devout, endorsing the idea of populated worlds as part of divine creation. Into this volatile mix arrived Locke’s hoax, designed as satire but received as revelation.

The Rise and Spread of the Hoax

The New York Sun’s transformation into a widely read “penny paper”—an affordable news source accessible to the masses—meant that the hoax reached an unprecedented audience. The cost of newspapers dropped dramatically due to steam-powered printing and advertising revenue, enabling broader dissemination of sensational stories.

Capitalizing on the growing popularity of the articles, the newspaper even commissioned artists to create detailed lithographs depicting the imagined lunar landscape and inhabitants. These images, based on Locke’s vivid descriptions, fueled the public’s fascination and further entrenched the myth.

Eventually, the story spread beyond America, inspiring reproductions and adaptations in newspapers across the English-speaking world. The idea of lunar man-bats, talking beavers, and celestial unicorns became a shared cultural curiosity, an early example of viral misinformation long before the era of the internet and social media.

The Enduring Legacy of the Moon Hoax

The Great Moon Hoax was eventually exposed as a fabrication, with no actual discoveries made by Herschel or anyone else as described. Yet the story remains a compelling example of how misinformation can take hold when it aligns with prevailing beliefs and social conditions. Richard Adams Locke, despite knowing the truth, felt powerless or unwilling to retract the stories because they belonged to his publisher, and the profits and readership gains were significant.

Interestingly, the hoax sparked its own wave of moon-related enthusiasm, with some religious groups even fundraising to send Bibles to the Moon, believing the celestial body to be inhabited and in need of spiritual guidance.

Today, we may be wary of “fake news” as a modern scourge amplified by digital platforms, but the Great Moon Hoax reminds us this phenomenon is deeply rooted in history. It highlights the potent mix of hope, belief, curiosity, and gullibility that drives our collective hunger for wonder, especially about the cosmos.

While the Moon is no longer the realm of unicorns or man-bats, the human desire to believe in extraordinary stories about our closest celestial neighbor endures. In the end, the Moon remains not just a physical destination, but a mirror reflecting our hopes, fears, and imagination—sometimes truthfully, sometimes in hoaxes lovable enough to capture the world’s awe.