The moon is shrinking and the earth is to blame
(Picture: Giphy)
A research team led by Thomas R. Watters of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum reported that over the last billion years or so, the core of our only natural satellite has cooled and contracted.
As a result there are roughly 3,200 cracks and ridges in the surface. These are not uniformly distributed, however, as you would expect to see if the moon was shrinking at the same rate all over.
In other words, something is exerting itself on the moon, and Watters and his colleagues believe that something is the earth’s tidal forces.
In the journal Geology, Watters proposed that tidal forces ‘contribute significantly to the current stress state of the lunar crust.’
In any case, the takeaway point seems to be there is now less available cheese
A research team led by Thomas R. Watters of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum reported that over the last billion years or so, the core of our only natural satellite has cooled and contracted.
As a result there are roughly 3,200 cracks and ridges in the surface. These are not uniformly distributed, however, as you would expect to see if the moon was shrinking at the same rate all over.
In other words, something is exerting itself on the moon, and Watters and his colleagues believe that something is the earth’s tidal forces.
In the journal Geology, Watters proposed that tidal forces ‘contribute significantly to the current stress state of the lunar crust.’
In any case, the takeaway point seems to be there is now less available cheese
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