The moon is shrinking

NASA scientists say the Moon is moving away from Earth and shrinking but still under the influence of Earth's gravity.

The moon is increasingly leaving Earth

The theory of moving away from the Earth and reducing the size of the Moon due to gravity has been noticed by researchers a few years ago. According to a study published on September 16, although the distance is getting farther away, the Earth still has a great influence on the Moon.

The results from the Moon orbit LRO showed that the Earth's strong gravitational influence greatly affected thousands of fragments on the Moon's surface during contraction . Using a narrow-angle camera, the LRO has identified 14 steep cliffs formed on the lunar surface from August 2010. Previously, Paranomic Apollo camera captured 70 similar cliffs.

According to a report by the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), these small cliffs are less than 10km long and only about 10m high. Scientists believe that they are formed by the cooling process of the Moon core. The colder core occurs simultaneously with the solidification process of the outer molten core layers, causing the volume of the Moon to decrease, its size to be smaller, creating cracks.

Earth's tidal forces act on the Moon (black arrows) and cracks (red).(Photo: IB Times).

After 6 years of studying these fractured cliffs, the Moon LRO surveillance camera has captured more than 3,000 photos, over about 3/4 of the surface area. They are fairly evenly distributed across the entire Moon, indicating that this is a common terrain construct here. They also have a certain orientation

Gravitational forces that reduce the size from the inside of the Moon cannot orient these vertical fractures.

"There is a pattern for the orientation of thousands of cracks , there must be something that causes this orientation," Thomas Watters, the study's lead author, is currently working at the National Space Museum. Washington, said.

From these data, scientists have determined that the gravitational force from Earth has directed cracks to form while the Moon shrinks. This is the force similar to the gravity of the Moon acting on the sea on Earth, causing tidal phenomena.

"We previously suspected that this force was the cause, but did not dare to conclude. Now, with photos recording more than half of the Moon's surface, we were able to begin focusing on tissues. The terrain structure is here, " said Mark Robinson, co-author of the study.

As the Moon continues to shrink as the core continues to cool, the cliffs will still form. When the Earth and the Moon are the farthest from each other, the cliffs will suffer the strongest traction. This is also the time when the geological activities on the Moon can occur at the highest level. NASA hopes to later be able to monitor hypothetical Moon seismic events with a seismic map.