Moon May Not Be As Dead As We Thought

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Moon May Not Be As Dead As We Thought

Posted by timothy on Tuesday February 21, 2012 @04:19AM from the lunological-activity dept.

rivin2e writes "It would seem our neighbor, the moon, has something hidden below the surface. 'Images collected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter hints the moon has probably seen tectonic activity within the last 50 million years.' It would appear from the article that the moon is changing a lot more than we think, even if it doesn't seem like it. I, for one, am still waiting for that big black obelisk to be dug up." From NASA's press release: "A team of researchers analyzing high-resolution images obtained by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) show small, narrow trenches typically much longer than they are wide. This indicates the lunar crust is being pulled apart at these locations. These linear valleys, known as graben, form when the moon's crust stretches, breaks and drops down along two bounding faults. A handful of these graben systems have been found across the lunar surface."

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the moon is growing by mestar · 2012-02-21 04:23 · Score: 3, Funny

It is obvious. The moon is growing.
1. Re:the moon is growing by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-21 04:35 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  It's not growing--something inside it is ready to burst out. This must be what the Mayans were talking about.
2. Re:the moon is growing by fedos · 2012-02-21 04:56 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  It's a mutant space goat. We better get the telephone cleaners and hair dressers loaded onto B Ark.
3. Re:the moon is growing by Beardo+the+Bearded · 2012-02-21 05:14 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I'm not worried. The last time any Gods showed up, we killed it -- nailed the fucking thing to a cross and let it bleed to death. This was during the Roman Empire when the highest technology was what, a slightly faster chariot? A Galleon with archers on deck?
  It's 2012. We've got battleships, satellites, hypersonic jet aircraft, helicopter gunships, atomic weapons, and a grudge deeper than Mariana's Trench.
  You want to destroy the Earth? Well, you'll have to get through us first.
  
  --
  
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  ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
4. Re:the moon is growing by tom17 · 2012-02-21 05:15 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  We need to make sure that when we get there, we have a good infrastructure of lawyers, big media execs and politicians.
5. Re:the moon is growing by dkleinsc · 2012-02-21 05:24 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Don't forget banking and finance. They definitely need capital markets if they're going to accomplish anything. After all, without the possibility of great monetary reward, there's no way anybody would bother to build a shelter for themselves or gather fruit to eat.
  
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  I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
Moon... dead? by girlintraining · 2012-02-21 04:24 · Score: 4, Interesting

I'm not sure tectonic plate activity really moves a planet over from the 'dead' category to the 'mostly dead' category (also known as 'slightly alive'). Unless of course you just found Thor hanging out there running around banging mountains flat or something.
Perhaps you meant to say "Moon not as geologically stable as we thought." ?

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1. Re:Moon... dead? by Kjella · 2012-02-21 04:50 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Dead as in inert, inactive like a dead volcano. Not everything we describe as dead was ever alive...
  
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  Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Yeah, yeah. by pushing-robot · 2012-02-21 04:25 · Score: 5, Funny

We all know this is just marketing for Iron Sky.

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How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
No volcanos by i+kan+reed · 2012-02-21 04:26 · Score: 3, Interesting

Regardless of the facts concerning the moon's plate tectonics, there's a lot of evidence of how dead it is in the lack of active volcanoes. Earth has 2-5 eruptions each year, the moon has none, as long as we've been observing it. Any active mantle, must therefor be deep below the crust. I've heard it said that tidally locked planetoids elsewhere in the solar system have some high energy earthquakes due to the relative forces on their near and far faces. Perhaps this is like that?
1. Re:No volcanos by vlm · 2012-02-21 04:41 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Another good point in favor of dead moon is the seismological studies that were done. Supposedly all evidence at that time pointed to a solid body. For example seismic waves reflect off solid/liq transition boundary, you see that on earth, not on moon, so either the entire moon is liquid or the entire moon is solid, and surface studies clearly show its solid, so the inside must also be solid. Plate tectonics are much harder if the whole moon is a solid cold rock.
  Probably a good excuse to visit the moon again... drop a permanent base, several geologists with moon buggies and C-4 to run some standard seismic surveys...
  
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  "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
2. Re:No volcanos by mbone · 2012-02-21 04:50 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  ...the moon has none, as long as we've been observing it.
  Don't be so sure.
  The Moon has shallow (non-tidal) Moonquakes. No one knows much about their causes.
  No other solar system body (except, of course, for the Earth) has had any seismological data at all. (One of the Viking landers had a working seismometer; it was totally swamped by wind vibrations; at most it may have detected the grand total of one Marsquake, but that's not clear.)
3. Re:No volcanos by stjobe · 2012-02-21 05:38 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Earth has 2-5 eruptions each year
  That's off by a factor of ten.
  From wikipedia: "Presently there are about 500 active volcanoes in the world – the majority following along the Pacific 'Ring of Fire' – and around 50 of these erupt each year.[6] The United States is home to 50 active volcanoes.[7] There are more than 1,500 potentially active volcanoes.[8] An estimated 500 million people live near active volcanoes.[9]"
  
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  "Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
Only mostly dead? by Galaga88 · 2012-02-21 04:32 · Score: 5, Funny

Science Max: It just so happens that your moon here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.
Inigo Moontoya: What's that?
Science Max: Go through its craters and look for loose helium-3.
Re:Major nerd points lost. by Gideon+Wells · 2012-02-21 04:33 · Score: 5, Funny

Oh sure, hold up the 1:4:9s as the standard of beauty. Anorexic slabs. Its bad enough that they go through purge cycles. Just look at what they did to Jupiter. Now if they maintained a healthy mass...

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Re:So "Being Alive" is defined as what? by mbone · 2012-02-21 04:42 · Score: 3, Informative

Geologically, "live" means active and "dead," or "extinct" means inactive (as in a dead or extinct volcano). This terminology has been used for a long time (decades, if not centuries) and is reasonably expressive.
By the way, electrical engineering has live wires, using the same analogy. Best not to touch them.
Re:Lava Tubes by bmo · 2012-02-21 04:43 · Score: 4, Interesting

But that was before they got a closer look.
When the model changes to accept new data, we call it science.
When the model never changes and rejects all new data, we call it religion and dogma.
Hope this helps.
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BMO
Upgraded by MadKeithV · 2012-02-21 04:53 · Score: 3, Funny

The moon has been upgraded from "harmless" to "mostly harmless" then?
Isn't that kind of how trenches work? by davidbrit2 · 2012-02-21 05:41 · Score: 4, Funny

...small, narrow trenches typically much longer than they are wide.
Well yeah, if they aren't, we just call them "holes".