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The Moon Is Shrinking Like a Wrinkled Apple
astroengine writes "New observations by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have uncovered a number of previously unknown, recently formed 'lobate scarps' — raised cliffs about 9 meters high and several kilometers long — over the lunar surface. These scarps form along thrust faults where compression forces the moon's crust to rise. Up until now it was thought these lobate scarps only occurred around the lunar equator, but the high resolution LRO imagery suggests they are ubiquitous, regardless of latitude. As the moon is geologically inactive, what could be creating these features? It would appear the moon's surface is acting like the skin of an apple surrounding the shrinking, dehydrated flesh of the fruit; the lunar crust (skin) is wrinkling as the body of the moon (the flesh) shrinks due to cooling contraction inside the moon's core."
This more like the aging of a round of cheese.
It's amazing that can happen over the span of just 6,000 years.
it's just shrinkage cuz it's cold in space. Happens to every moon, doesn't it?
rewriting history since 2109
The only way to guarantee our safety is to nuke it to ashes before anything unexpected or bad happens. Plus everyone will receive free apple pie from the sky.
It's lunar cooling!!
Frylock: "What happened to your body, man?"
Meatwad: "Well, it's obvious isn't it? Thermal expansion."
Frylock: "No it's not thermal expansion. I know what thermal expansion is."
Meatwad: "Okay, fine. I'm sure that you do. Let's see, how can I explain this without blowing your mind?"
Frylock: "Oh yes, please. Dumb it down for me."
Meatwad: "Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle tells us that at a specific curvature of space, knowledge can be transferred into energy."
Frylock: "Heisenberg's Uncert-"
Meatwad: "Or...and this is key now...matter."
Frylock: "No it does not!"
Meatwad: "Well, some people struggle with Heisenberg. Look! Here's a toy! It goes up and down on a string, doesn't that look like fun?"
Frylock: "Get that thing out of my face!"
Meatwad: "Why don't you go take that into the other room, while the adults are doing important research here."
Frylock: "Oh, I'm sorry professor. I didn't realize that knowledge could also transform you into an arrogant ass."
Living With a Nerd
All this Apple bashing on Slashdot is doing my head in. Can't you just give it a rest for a single day?
I'm so angry. Cancel my subscription. I'm done here.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
My first thought was couldn't this be more of a tidal effect than due to shrinking? After all, look at what the orbiting mass of the moon does to our oceans. Wouldn't the mass of the earth have a similar effect on the moon? Even if it is tide-locked so the same face always faces the earth, surely there's some slight wobble to that that would cause stress.
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
It is just a side effect of my lunar mining operations.
iMoon, Wrinkle Different
That the moon is undergoing these kinds of changes shows that the moon is geologically active. There may be no convection going on in its core, but this is still geological activity.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
OMG, in a few thousand millennia the man in the moon will look like Ronald Reagan!
Nate
Of course the moon is shrinking like an old apple. Someone left it out sitting in the sun.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Only it's not quite as old....
... it gets wrinkled.
Pretty soon, it starts yelling at the kids to stay off its lawn.
Have gnu, will travel.
It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the liberals have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans.
Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the liberals have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors .. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the liberals will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at Berkeley is updated with information about you.
Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the liberal community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!
Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.
Who run Barter Town?
I would like to point out that before tectonics was relatively well understood and accepted (this only happened in the late 1960's), among the various models proposed to explain geological structures on the earth such as mountain belts was this exact idea.
So personally, as someone interested in the history of the field of geology (and a geologist myself), I think this is really pretty awesome. Whoever came up with this idea before really had a great idea - I can't recall when it was but it was likely mid-late 1800's, so too bad he's not still around to see that his theory was plausible.
It was understood well before the 1960's that this couldn't explain the earth's structures - it was not a seriously considered theory for very long for several reasons - but at least the idea is sound.
And to comment on those who are saying that this proves the moon is geologically active, I think this is a pedantic point which depends on how you define "geologically active", and that's the kind of thing that has an obvious simple answer to start with but then gets complex when you have situations like this.
As a geologist I would still define the moon as being inactive. Active to me would imply influences besides simply gravity (although gravity is of course a major driving force in earth-type tectonics, it's not the only factor). If you subdivide the earth into active and inactive areas, even the inactive areas will occasionally have things like earthquakes happen, due to intra-plate stresses or whatever. But you won't get volcanic activity or major tectonic activity in those areas, just like you won't on the moon.