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NEWS > SCIENCE > THE MOON IS SHRINKING AND THERE’S NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
THE MOON IS SHRINKING AND THERE’S NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
August 20 2010
Washington, D.C. – The moon has always been our access to the heavens. The sheets of stars that lay above our heads every night surely inspire the imagination and force us to ponder our place in the universe but it is the moon, our nearest 
celestial neighbour, which inspires our love of the world beyond the Earth. Centuries ago cultures worshipped the moon, they built their lives around its appearance and disappearance. Today we do the same thing even though our worship has turned to scientific intrigue because as it was to our ancestors, the moon is infinitely fascinating.
In the last forty or so years we have been able to practice that worship in truly unique ways. Our travel to the moon and our continued study of her surface and history has perhaps removed some of the magic from her, but none of the intrigue. The more we discover about the moon the more important we realize it is for life on our planet and the more we realize how the universe itself works. Unfortunately, we may not have much more time to study our neighbour and learn from her as recent evidence has shown that the moon is shrinking on a steady basis. Though still far from disappearing some are concerned that should the moon continue to shrink it may be lost forever.
“We’ve known about these wrinkle in the surface of the moon for a while now, the first Apollo astronauts reported them initially, and we knew that they were a result of moonquakes but until now we don’t know how common those quakes were or what they may have been a result of but we now know that the moon itself is shrinking,” said Thomas Watters of the Smithsonian Institution. “Thus far it hasn’t shrunk a great deal, about 200 metres in the last billion years, but there is evidence that they are continuing and possibly even escalating as time goes on which may mean that one day there will be no moon in the sky.”
Apollo astronauts placed seismometers on the moon in the 1970’s allowing continued study of the quakes.
“It would be very strange to look into the night sky and not see a moon. I mean every one of our ancestors have been able to gaze at that strange face in the sky and dream but someday that might simply not be the case. It’s going to take a while to be sure but still,” said Scrape TV Science analyst Dr. Howard Poe. “The biggest question has to be not only what do we do to ensure we glean as much information from the moon as possible before it vanishes, but also what will happen when it does contract completely. Will it simply crush into a super dense mass? Will it invert and create a black hole? If this is happening to the moon then what does that say for our planet and its eventual fate? These are all questions that need to be answered before it’s too late.”
Some experts are suggesting that we blow up the moon before it vanishes which will create a series of rings around the Earth, but that plan is currently considered unlikely in the near future.
“This is just one more mystery in the vast mystery that is the universe. Perhaps this is the fate of all planetary bodies, that they will one day crush into nothingness if allowed to live long enough. Again this could happen here but it would probably take a long time,” continued Poe. “So we can wonder and lament but in the end the Universe is bigger than us and will do what it wants. Perhaps the best thing to do is just enjoy the moon while it is here and not worry about the future.”
The sun is expected to grow into a red giant in about five billion years, consuming all of the inner planets including the moon.
Anna Phillips, Science Correspondent
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