A recent study reveals that the moon is getting smaller, which could result in a significant issue for upcoming space missions.
Scientists have discovered that as the moon shrinks, it is creating landslides, moonquakes, and other harmful activities, which has caused the most recent mission of the moon to be postponed until 2025. The moon’s surface is so brittle that fractures are created when pieces of the crust push against one another.
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What Does the University of Maryland Say On This?
Scientists at the University of Maryland in the United States discovered that the moon’s surface is changing noticeably near its south pole, where NASA intends to set down the Artemis III mission. They have linked local faults to one of the most powerful moonquakes that Apollo seismometers captured more than half a century ago.
Upon using models to assess the stability of the slopes in this area, researchers discovered that certain locations may be vulnerable to landslides in the event of a moonquake. Dr. Thomas Watters states, “Our modeling suggests that slip events on existing faults or the formation of new thrust faults could result in shallow moonquakes capable of producing strong ground shaking in the south polar region.”
He further added, “When determining the position and stability of permanent outposts on the moon, care should be taken to account for the worldwide distribution of juvenile thrust faults, their potential for activity, and the possibility of fresh thrust fault formation resulting from continuous global contraction.”
What Is Moonquake?
Similar to earthquakes, shallow moonquakes can inflict harm on machinery, buildings, and other man-made structures since they originate from internal lunar faults. Shallow moonquakes, however, can linger for hours or even an entire afternoon, in contrast to earthquakes, which often only last a few seconds or minutes.
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