2024-01-29 20:58:37
Al-Independent/- A new study revealed that the moon is gradually shrinking, leading to an increasing number of landslides that may threaten future astronauts.
The Moon has lost up to 100 meters of its circumference over the past hundreds of millions of years due to the cooling of its centre.
The contraction is causing significant surface distortion in parts of the moon’s south pole, including proposed landing areas for NASA’s Artemis 3 crewed spacecraft, say researchers from the University of Maryland.
Since the moon’s contraction is accompanied by seismic activity such as moonquakes, scientists warn that locations near rift zones could pose risks to future human explorers.
“The global distribution of emerging thrust faults, their ability to be active and the potential for new thrust faults to form from ongoing global contraction should be taken into account when planning the location and stability of the Earth,” said study co-author Thomas Waters from the National Air and Space Museum. Permanent outposts on the moon.”
In the new study, researchers linked faults in the moon’s south polar region to one of the most powerful moonquakes recorded by Apollo seismometers in more than 50 years.
They found that some areas of the Moon’s south pole were particularly vulnerable to landslides caused by seismic tremors.
Scientists say that moonquakes result from faults in the moon’s interior, and can be powerful enough to destroy man-made structures and equipment on the moon’s surface.
But unlike earthquakes, which last only a few seconds, moonquakes can last for hours, meaning these shallow quakes could destroy human settlements in the future.
This is because the Moon contains loose sediments on its surface that were formed from billions of years of collisions of asteroids and comets.
“You can think of the moon’s surface as being dry and covered with gravel and dust,” said Nicholas Schmer, another author of the study. “Over billions of years, the surface has been subjected to impacts by asteroids and comets, with the resulting angular fragments constantly being ejected from the impacts.”
“As a result, the size of the reworked surface material can range from the size of a micron to the size of a rock, but it is all very loosely consolidated. Dr. Shamir explained that loose sediments make it very possible for vibrations and landslides to occur.
NASA hopes to launch the first manned flight to the Moon in more than five decades as part of the Artemis missions in late 2024. As plans develop to eventually establish a long-term presence on the Moon’s surface, researchers hope to expand the scope of the Moon further to identify more Locations that may be dangerous to human exploration.
“This work helps us prepare for what awaits us on the Moon, whether that’s engineering structures that can better withstand lunar seismic activity or protecting people from really dangerous areas,” Dr. Shamir said.
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