Jakarta – The moon constantly orbits the Earth. However, their size has likely changed over time. What do experts think about changes in the Moon?
A study published in the Planetary Science Journal on January 25, found that the Moon’s circumference has shrunk by more than 150 feet.
A team of scientists from NASA, the Smithsonian, Arizona State University, and The University of Maryland found evidence of the Moon’s core cooling gradually over hundreds of millions of years.
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This cooling continues to cause several surface changes around the Moon’s South Pole. The terrain on which to land during the Artemis III manned mission has even changed.
Similar to Grapes
This lunar shrinking process is similar to how grapes wrinkle. The moon also creases and wrinkles as it wanes.
However, grapes have flexible skin, while the Moon has a fragile surface. Fragility causes faults to form where parts of the crust push against each other.
As a result of this shrinkage, faults are formed which are accompanied by seismic activity such as earthquakes. Any location near these lunar fault zones could pose a threat to human exploration there, just as those living near fault lines on Earth face a greater risk of earthquakes.
In the new study, the team linked a group of faults in the Moon’s south polar region to powerful Moonquakes recorded by Apollo seismometers more than 50 years ago.
They used computer models to simulate the stability of surface slopes and find areas susceptible to landslides.
“Our modeling suggests that shallow Moonquakes capable of producing strong ground shaking in the south polar region may result from slip events on existing faults or the formation of new thrust faults,” said Thomas R. Watters, study co-author and senior scientist emeritus at the Air and Space Museum, in Pop Science, quoted on Sunday (28/1/2024).pao
Editor : Editor
2024-01-28 16:50:00
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