Is the Moon shrinking?

NASA scientists say that the Moon may be shrinking – but it’s not disappearing, don’t be afraid!

The scientists reached this conclusion after studying a series of pictures taken by a spacecraft orbiting our home planet’s closest neighbor. The pictures show a series of small cliffs that were risen while the Moon’s surface cooled over the past one billion years.

The Moon, as all planets according to the current theories about their forming, was hot in the beginning, then its surface solidified as it cooled down, but the core of it cooled down later and the whole celestial body was shrinking in the process. Scientists say that the Moon may be shrinking continuously, at a rate that is unnoticeable from Earth. In the last billion years the Moon’s diameter has shrunk by 300 feet.

The cliffs were caused by quakes (moonquakes) caused by faults in the lunar crust, in a way similar to what happens on Earth around the San Andreas fault.

The high definition images that led to this discovery were taken last year by the Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter that was used, along with a rocket, to search for water on our planetary neighbor. The 2009 mission was successful.