In the summer of 1835, the New York Sun was a struggling penny press newspaper looking for a miracle to boost readership. Enter Richard Adams Locke, a reporter who conceived one of the most audacious media fabrications in history. Beginning on August 25, the Sun published a series of six front-page articles describing astounding astronomical discoveries allegedly made by Sir John Herschel, the premier British astronomer of the era, operating a revolutionary new super-telescope in South Africa.
The articles claimed Herschel had peered onto the lunar surface and spotted lush forests, crystal oceans, and herds of bison-like creatures alongside bipedal blue antelopes. Most sensationally, the reports described intelligent beings called Vespertilio-homo, or bat-men: four-foot-tall winged humanoids who built majestic sapphire temples and engaged in peaceful social discourse. The narrative was written with such dense scientific jargon and pseudo-academic rigor that even established scholars and rival publication editors were thoroughly duped.
Subscriptions to the Sun soared to over 19,000, making it the most widely circulated daily newspaper in the world at the time. When Herschel eventually learned of the articles in South Africa, he was initially amused, though his patience wore thin as gullible believers flooded him with letters asking how to send Bibles to the moon-dwellers. Locke eventually confessed to a friend that the whole endeavor was a satirical hoax intended to mock religious extremists who saw science as a way to prove divine life on other worlds.
Despite the revelation, the public harbored surprisingly little anger toward the Sun, appreciating the sheer entertainment value of the spectacular fabrication.