Moon Shrinking, Lunar Radius Contracting

By: Bill Waters
08/28/2010 08:46 AM ET

Moon shrinking, lunar radius contracting. The radius of the moon is contracting by colder temperatures that is causing the shrinking. The shrinking radius of the moon has been under examination by NASA scientists.

Shrinking of the moon has always been up for debate, but now new evidence could show that it’s a fact. In fact, scientists are reviewing new photos to conclude their research. To find out if the moon is getting smaller, scientists have studied temperatures.

NASA claims that the moon was formed in a chaotic environment of intense bombardment by asteroids and meteors, and it’s facing decay of its radioactive elements that made it hot. The colder it is, the smaller the moon becomes. Scientists believe the moon has shrunk over time as it cooled, and the cooling has caused newly discovered cliffs.

“We estimate these cliffs, called lobate scarps, formed less than a billion years ago, and they could be as young as a hundred million years,” Thomas Watters, Center for Earth and Planetary Studies in Washington, said in a statement. A time period of a billion years, while extremely ancient in human terms, is less than 25 percent of the moon’s age of more than 4 billion years, according to Watters. “Based on the size of the scarps, we estimate the distance between the moon’s center and its surface shrank by about 300 feet,” Watters said.

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