Moon is shrinking, but not to worry: Scientists

Washington DC, Aug 20: The only natural satellite of earth, the moon is shrinking, US scientists declared on Thursday, Aug 20, but not to worry much about it.

This discovery was made by US scientists who examined thousands of photographs of the moon"s surface taken by a Nasa orbiter.

A team led by Thomas Watters at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, studied high-resolution images of the moon taken over the past year by Nasa"s latest moon probe, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

“This isn"t anything to worry about. The moon may be shrinking, but not by much. It"s not going anywhere," said the scientists.

Some of the wrinkles are several miles long and rise tens of metres above the dusty terrain.

Researchers believe they arise from the moon decreasing in size by around 200 metres across its diameter. The moon"s mean diameter is generally calculated to be 3,474 kms.

Scientists believe the moon formed after a Mars-sized object slammed into the Earth and produced an enormous cloud of debris 4.5bn years ago. The debris coalesced into the fledgling moon and warmed up as particles were crushed together and some released radiation.

OneIndia News