Starship Asterisk*

Newly discovered cliffs in the lunar crust indicate the moon shrank globally in the geologically recent past and might still be shrinking today, according to a team analyzing new images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. The results provide important clues to the moon's recent geologic and tectonic evolution.

The moon formed in a chaotic environment of intense bombardment by asteroids and meteors. These collisions, along with the decay of radioactive elements, made the moon hot. The moon cooled off as it aged, and scientists have long thought the moon shrank over time as it cooled, especially in its early history. The new research reveals relatively recent tectonic activity connected to the long-lived cooling and associated contraction of the lunar interior.

• Science 329(5994) (20 Aug 2010) DOI: 10.1126/science.1189590

Guest wrote:I heard before that moon is going away from earth slowly, according to laser measurements.
Now, could it be that laser measurements actually show moon shrinking?

http://twitter.com/elakdawalla/statuses/21597172671/ wrote:
Watters: <<"Based on the size of the scarps, we estimate the distance between the moon's center and its surface shrank by about [100 m]">>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon wrote:
<<Gravitational coupling between the Moon and the bulge nearest the Moon acts as a torque on the Earth's rotation, draining angular momentum and rotational kinetic energy from the Earth's spin. In turn, angular momentum is added to the Moon's orbit, accelerating it, which lifts the Moon into a higher orbit with a longer period. As a result, the distance between the Earth and Moon is increasing, and the Earth's spin slowing down. Measurements from lunar ranging experiments with laser reflectors left during the Apollo missions have found that the Moon's distance to the Earth increases by 38 mm per year (though this is only 0.10 ppb/year of the radius of the Moon's orbit). Atomic clocks also show that the Earth's day lengthens by about 15 microseconds every year, slowly increasing the rate at which leap seconds must be added to the calendar.>>

Guest wrote:I heared before that moon is going away from earth slowly, according to laser measurements. Now, could it be that laser measurements actually show moon shrinking?

Chris Peterson wrote:The increasing orbital radius of the Moon wasn't detected by rangefinding, but is understood in terms of angular momentum transfer.

The Moon used to be a LOT closer- by more than a lunar diameter, and therefore inexplicable in terms of lunar shrinkage.

deathfleer wrote: Mr. Nuefer , etc,

I would be very pleased if you could verify these two photos:-
http://www.akhwatmuslimah.com/wp-conten ... crack1.jpg
and
http://www.akhwatmuslimah.com/wp-conten ... elah-1.jpg

thanks