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a newly published study using images

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from nasa's lunar reconnaissance orbiter

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reveal tantalizing hints that the moon

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has slightly shrunk in the recent

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geologic past and in fact may still be

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actively shrinking today

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the research led by dr tom waters from

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the smithsonian national air and space

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museum

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involved searching thousands of lunar

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images for specific fault structures

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called lobate scarps

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we know the moon is shrinking by looking

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at the lobate scarps in detail they

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actually

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reflect the crustal materials of the

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moon being pushed together breaking and

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being thrust over one another

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so that indicates that something has

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been causing the moon to actually

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contract or shrink

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finding that the lobate scarps are

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globally distributed indicates that

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contraction of a lunar surface is

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happening on a global scale and this is

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critical knowledge to understand the

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geologic history of the moon

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the next steps in this research will be

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to more accurately assess the age of

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these scarps to help determine how

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geologically active the moon might still

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be today

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what's exciting about these findings for

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me is that the moon

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is not

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a dead body

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it's not an object

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where everything that happened on the

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moon

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happened billions of years ago

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these scarps could be

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younger than a billion years they could

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be

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in fact as young as a couple of hundred

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million years old or they could be even

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younger than that

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and that means in geologic terms the

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moon

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is active

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to learn more about this story visit the

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home page for the lunar reconnaissance