The Moon is shrinking........

[Nabobalis]

The Moon is shrinking!
Well, a little: new results from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate that over recent geological time, the Moon has shrunk by approximately 100 meters in diameter!

That image shows the Gregory scarp, a cliff across the surface of the Moon. Scarps like these have been known for centuries — I’ve observed many myself using a backyard telescope — but it was always thought they were big and restricted to just some areas on the Moon. LRO, though has found many smaller scarps, and also importantly that these scarps are distributed globally, all across the surface of our nearest neighbor in space.
What does this have to do with shrinkage?

This diagram shows how scarps are formed: thrust faults. If the Moon shrinks, even a little, the surface shrinks too, and gets compressed. This causes stress under the surface, building pressure. Eventually that pressure exceeds the strength of the rock above it, and you get a fault. One side of the fault slams upward, forming the scarp.
We see these sorts of features on many bodies in the solar system, including the Earth, where their origin is from tectonic plate motion. As the continental plates move past each other, friction allows the pressure to build up. There’s no such drift on the Moon — the surface is essentially one big piece — so something else must be causing it.
Shrinkage makes the most sense. The interior of the Moon is still warm from the leftover heat from its formation billions of years ago. Hundreds of kilometers of rock makes a pretty good insulator, so the Moon has cooled very slowly. As the interior cools, it shrinks, and the surface collapses down as well. Pressure builds, then snap! While a lot of these scarps are very long and dozens of meters in height, LRO’s sharp vision (it can see objects less than a meter in size!) can spot scarps that are only a kilometer or two in length and a few meters high. That sort of feature is not possible to see from Earth. They’re too small.
So this scarp formation has been going on essentially since the Moon formed, but the question is: does this process still continue today?
Maybe. The scarps seen are relatively young, something like 800 million to a billion years old. Dating them is difficult, but again LRO’s keen eye helps us out:

In this image, the scarp seen cuts right across some small craters. Geologists can use the number of craters to get an age for the landscape, which is how they have been able to get a rough estimate of how old the scarp is. Also, despite the lack of air and standing water, the Moon undergoes erosion. Solar wind, micrometeorites, and even the thermal expansion and compression caused by the Moon’s day/night cycle all work to grind up surface rock into dust. The scarps look quite fresh, limiting their age.
Another interesting bit of evidence is that the Apollo missions put seismographs on the Moon, which recorded quite a few moonquakes. Several dozen of these quakes were shallow, which may be related to scarp formation (since the thrust faults are near the surface).
So, does this mean the process is still going on? It’s not really possible to say as yet. A billion years is a long time, and it’s difficult to know if any small scarps are younger than that. As LRO scans more and more of the lunar surface, more of these types of landscape features will be seen.
And finally, what does this mean for the ultimate size of the Moon? Well, you have to put this into perspective: the Moon’s diameter is about 3475 kilometers. This shrinkage is only about 0.003% of that. In other words, you’d never, ever be able to see that by comparing the Moon’s diameter now as it was, say, a billion years ago. So we’re not in any danger of the Moon collapsing down into a tiny little ball!
What it does mean is that despite it being perhaps the most well-studied object in the sky, our Moon is still capable of surprising us. Not only that, but some of its secrets are actually rather big, but so well-hidden we need to study the Moon pretty carefully to uncover them. Happily, we’re doing just that. There’s not a scientist on the planet who doesn’t like surprises, especially when they’ve been sitting right there in the sky for us to find.
[SIZE=-2]
Credits: Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University/Smithsonian[/SIZE]

So creationists are right but in the wrong direction. So planets get smaller overtime not bigger. That is why the moon is moving away from us. Everything is getting smaller

Check blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/ for details and the pics/diagrams. Still can't post links or images *sigh*.

 

[driewerf]

Here you are:
Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

 

[Agonaces of Susa]

LOL.

Of course, were the moon actually shrinking that would contradict plate tectonics theory that says that it is impossible for planets and moons to shrink or pulsate.

Spreading rifts and divergent faults are caused by growth not shrinkage.

 

[Spacewyrm]

LOL.

Of course, were the moon actually shrinking that would contradict plate tectonics theory that says that it is impossible for planets and moons to shrink or pulsate.

Spreading rifts and divergent faults are caused by growth not shrinkage.

And the moon shrinking confirms expansion tectonics because shrinking causes expansion.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

And the moon shrinking confirms expansion tectonics because shrinking causes expansion.

Bwah

 

[Sleepingsubject]

Lol, that is the most silly thing I've read today. Things, especially planets, don't just up and start shrinking. It's probably just some result of bad science.

 

[LifeToTheFullest!]

Ah, but sometimes planets turn into moons.

 

[AV1611VET]

Perhaps all that water that scientists used to say was on the moon is no longer there?

 

[corvus_corax]

Here you are:
Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww
Jack "keep looking up" Horkheimer is dead?
Yet another memory of my childhood confronted by my older years

(yeah, that was the latest story today in that link)

 

[Spacewyrm]

Bwah

Sorry, I got mixed up. I meant to say that shrinking is the result of expansion.

 

[Agonaces of Susa]

In actual fact, planets and moon pulsate.

"The net result of the electrical imbalance will be the pulsation of the Earth (expansion-contraction), which is superimposed on its expansion." -- Stavros T. Tassos, seismologist, 1998

And this has been known since antiquity.

"He [Democritus] said that the ordered worlds are boundless and differ in size, and that in some there is neither sun nor moon, but that in others, both are greater than with us, and yet with others more in number. And that the intervals between the ordered worlds are unequal, here more and there less, and that some increase, others flourish and others decay, and here they come into being and there they are eclipsed. But that they are destroyed by colliding with one another. And that some ordered worlds are bare of animals and plants and all water." -- Hippolytus, priest, 2nd century

 

[matthewgar]

Has anyone else not realized the horribly sick disgusting truth about this? The moons' been living in sin, we all thought it was just a term when the moon was full..but in actually it was a literal full moon with it showing us it's crack....*yeah yeah bad pun ducks to avoid stuff thrown*

 

[Spacewyrm]

Has anyone else not realized the horribly sick disgusting truth about this? The moons' been living in sin, we all thought it was just a term when the moon was full..but in actually it was a literal full moon with it showing us it's crack....*yeah yeah bad pun ducks to avoid stuff thrown*

Bad puns are one thing. I love a good bad pun. But... what?

 

[Agonaces of Susa]

Ah, but sometimes planets turn into moons.

And vice versa.

For example, the Earth used to be a moon of Saturn before Saturn was captured by Jupiter and the star Saturn exploded as a nova and left it's rings as a nebula.

"... the Sun captured a previously independent Saturnian system, in which Saturn was the brown-dwarf primary...." -- Mel Acheson, natural philosopher, November 2nd 2009

"... I started to think that quite possibly, though not certain, that at the age of Kronos, the planet Earth could have been a satellite of Saturn. None of them was on their present orbit." -- Immanuel Velikovsky, polymath, January 29th 1975

"In China, Saturn has the title of 'Genie du pivot,' as the god who presides over the Center, the same title which is given to the Pole star. This is puzzling at first, and so is the laconic statement coming from Mexico: 'In the year 2-Reed Tezcatlipoca changed into Mixcouatl, because Mixcouatl has his seat at the North pole and, being now Mixcouatl, he drilled fire with the first fire sticks for the first time." -- Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha Von Dechend, polymaths, 1969

"... the conclusion would be that the distance of the Earth from Saturn was but a twentieth part of what it is now; this would permit us to speculate whether the Earth could at some earlier period have been a satellite of Saturn." -- Immanuel Velikovsky, polymath, In the Beginning: Saturn's Golden Age, 1966

"Helios and Kronos were one and the same god." -- Franz Boll, philologist, 1916

"'The planet Saturn is Shamash.'" -- Morris Jastrow Jr., historian, Sun and Saturn, 1910

"...'when Shamash stands in the halo of the moon.' Since this phenomenon can only occur at night, Shamash cannot of course be the sun. The proof that it is Saturn is furnished by the astrologers themselves...." -- Morris Jastrow Jr., historian, Sun and Saturn, 1910

"[R. Campbell] Thompson in his Introduction to his collection of astrological reports has noticed that the planet Saturn was also designated as Shamosh, i.e. 'sun' by the Babylonian-Assyrian astrologers and he quotes the statement of Hyginus to the effect that Saturn was called 'the star of the sun.'" -- Morris Jastrow Jr., historian, Sun and Saturn, 1910

"... by the word 'Sun' we must understand the 'Star of the Sun,' i.e., Saturn...." -- R. Campbell Thompson, historian, 1900

"... but how is it possible that the dark and distant planet Saturn can answer to the luminary who 'irradiates the nations like the sun, the light of the gods'?" -- George Rawlinson, historian, Ninip or Nin - His Epithets, 1875

"But this reign [Quetzalcoatl/Venus], like that of Saturn, and the happiness of the world, were not of long duration...." -- Alexander Von Humboldt, naturalist, 1814

"I take the sharing of the kingdom of Hyperion among his brothers the Titans, to be the division of the earth among the gods mentioned in the poem of Solon." -- Isaac Newton, mathematician, Revised History of Ancient Kingdoms: A Complete Chronology, 1727

"In Orpheus, likewise, Saturn is ensnared by Jupiter...." -- Porphyry, philosopher, Cave of Nymphs, 3rd century

"To you, O Saturn, Zoilus dedicates these chains and these double fetters, his first rings." -- Marcus V. Martialis, poet, Epigram XXIX, 1st century

"The first change came from Saturn, who arrived from skyey Olympus, flying from the arms of Jove, a realmless exile." -- Virgil, poet, The Aeneid, Book VIII, 1st century B.C.

"... shrink not from our welcome, but know in the Latian race the true people of Saturn, kept in righteousness by no band of law, but by our own instinct and the rule of our parent-god." -- Virgil, poet, The Aeneid, Book VII, 1st century B.C.

"... Augustus Caesar, true child of a god, who shall establish again for Latium a golden age in that very region where Saturn once reigned." -- Virgil, poet, The Aeneid, Book VI, 1st century B.C.

"The second star is that of Sol; others say is Saturn. Eratosthenes claims that it is called Paethon, from the son of Sol. Many have written about him -- how he foolishly drove his father's chariot and set fire to the earth. Because of this he was struck with a thunderbolt by Jove [Jupiter], and fell into the river Eridanus, and was conveyed by Sol to the constellations." -- Gaius J. Hyginus, author, Astronimica, Book II, 1st century B.C.

"Again, we have been often told of the reign of Cronos [Saturn]." -- Plato, philosopher, The Stateman, 360 B.C.

"There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals." -- Sonchis of Sais, priest, 6th century B.C.

As it is written:

"Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh [Saturn]:" -- Numbers 21:29

"And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal [Saturn] and Ashtaroth [Venus]." -- Judges 2:13

"Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh [Saturn] thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess." -- Judges 11:24

"Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh [Saturn], the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech [Saturn], the abomination of the children of Ammon." -- I Kings 11:7

"Because they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth [Venus] the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh [Saturn] the god of the Moabites, and Milcom [Saturn] the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father." -- I Kings 11:33

"But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch [Saturn] and Chiun [Saturn] your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves." -- Amos 5:26

"Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch [Saturn], and the star of your god Remphan [Saturn], figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon." -- Acts 7:43

 

[AV1611VET]

Has anyone else not realized the horribly sick disgusting truth about this? The moons' been living in sin...

Actually, that's pretty close to the Truth.

The fact is, the moon has been existing under the influence of sin.

The effects of the Fall are universal.

Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

 

[Sphinx777]

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,403 kilometres (238,857 mi), about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system (the barycentre) is located at about 1,700 kilometres (1,100 mi)—a quarter the Earth's radius—beneath the surface of the Earth. The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days (the orbital period), and the periodic variations in the geometry of the Earth–Moon–Sun system are responsible for the phases of the Moon, which repeat every 29.5 days (the synodic period).

The Moon's diameter is 3,474 kilometres (2,159 mi), a little more than a quarter of Earth's. Thus, the Moon's surface area is less than a tenth of the Earth (about a quarter of Earth's land area), and its volume is about 2 percent that of Earth. The pull of gravity at its surface is about 17 percent of that at the Earth's surface.

The Moon is the only celestial body on which human beings have made a manned landing. While the Soviet Union's Luna programme was the first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft, the United States' NASA Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, beginning with the first manned lunar mission by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972–the first being Apollo 11 in 1969. Human exploration of the Moon temporarily ceased with the conclusion of the Apollo program, although a few robotic landers and orbiters have been sent to the Moon since that time. The U.S. had committed to return to the Moon by 2018, however that commitment has been put into jeopardy by the proposed 2011 budget, which will cancel Constellation, NASA's project to send humans back to the moon by 2020. On November 13, 2009, NASA announced the discovery of proof that water exists on the Moon, based on data obtained from its LCROSS lunar impact mission.

​

 

[Doveaman]

And the moon shrinking confirms expansion tectonics because shrinking causes expansion.

Bwah

Sorry, I got mixed up. I meant to say that shrinking is the result of expansion.

So which is it: Does shrinking cause expansion, or does expansion cause shrinking?

 

[Spacewyrm]

So which is it: Does shrinking cause expansion, or does expansion cause shrinking?

Both.

"The gods [planets] that go down must also increase so the balance is maintained." -- Scopiolious Francescolino Byronisipion, philosopher king, 2257

(Are you taking me seriously, Doveaman?)

 

[USincognito]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww
Jack "keep looking up" Horkheimer is dead?
Yet another memory of my childhood confronted by my older years

(yeah, that was the latest story today in that link)

I got a pic with him at The Amaz!ng Meeting in '03 and currently am using it as my Facebook profile pic in his memory.

 

[Agonaces of Susa]

"Once again 'it is the fault of the reality if it does not comply with our models.' The so-called 'lobate scarps', i.e., faults that have a semi-circular or lobe-shaped appearance, are indicative of growth-expansion and not of contraction, to make it comply with the nonsensical model of the cooling interior. Even their words in the picture script indicate that, e.g., 'the fault carried near-surface crustal materials up and over the craters, burying parts of their floors and rims.' Therefore, I think wishful thinking is what they offer to us..." -- Stavros T. Tassos, seismologist, August 25th 2010