The Moon is shrinking

According to new research from NASA, the Moon is shrinking and this could be causing tremors on its surface, known as moonquakes. The Moon has been shrinking for several hundred million years as its interior cools down. This makes the surface shrivel, a bit like the way a grape shrinks to form a raisin. However, the Moon’s surface isn’t soft like a grape’s skin; it’s hard and brittle, and instead of wrinkling, it cracks. This throws up staircase-like cliffs called thrust faults, where one block of land is pushed up over another. These cliffs can be up to nine metres tall. Now, a link has been made between these thrust faults and moonquakes. NASA scientists took another look at data gathered from instruments measuring tremors on the Moon. The instruments,…

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The Week Junior (Digital) - 1 Issue, 180

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