February 2012
28 posts
Seismic Activity May Mean Moon Is Not Dead Yet →
npr.org
“
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is casting doubts on the belief that the moon is a lifeless piece of rock.
New observations from the LRO show that tectonic activity may still be going on in the moon. That means that the core of the moon may still be cooling causing it to contract, which in turn causes wrinkles on the moon’s surface. Previously, scientists believed the moon had cooled entirely and thought the last seismic activity happened about 1 billion years ago. But scientists estimate the graben — narrow, trench-like features — found by the LRO could have resulted from tectonic activity that happened 50 million years ago….”