The Shrinking Expanding Moon

From NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio. New images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft show the moon's crust is being stretched, forming minute valleys in a few small areas on the lunar surface. Scientists propose this geologic activity occurred less than 50 million years ago, which is considered recent compared to the moon's age of more than 4.5 billion years.
A team of researchers analyzing high-resolution images obtained by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) show small, narrow trenches typically much longer than they are wide. This indicates the lunar crust is being pulled apart at these locations. These linear valleys, known as graben, form when the moon's crust stretches, breaks and drops down along two bounding faults. A handful of these graben systems have been found across the lunar surface.
We think the moon is in a general state of global contraction because of cooling of a still hot interior," said Thomas Watters of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, and lead author of a paper on this research appearing in the March issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. "The graben tell us forces acting to shrink the moon were overcome in places by forces acting to pull it apart. This means the contractional forces shrinking the moon cannot be large, or the small graben might never form."
The weak contraction suggests that the moon, unlike the terrestrial planets, did not completely melt in the very early stages of its evolution. Rather, observations support an alternative view that only the moon's exterior initially melted forming an ocean of molten rock.
In August 2010, the team used LROC images to identify physical signs of contraction on the lunar surface, in the form of lobe-shaped cliffs known as lobate scarps. The scarps are evidence the moon shrank globally in the geologically recent past and might still be shrinking today. The team saw these scarps widely distributed across the moon and concluded it was shrinking as the interior slowly cooled.
Based on the size of the scarps, it is estimated that the distance between the moon's center and its surface shank by approximately 300 feet. The graben were an unexpected discovery and the images provide contradictory evidence that the regions of the lunar crust are also being pulled apart.
"This pulling apart tells us the moon is still active," said Richard Vondrak, LRO Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "LRO gives us a detailed look at that process."
As the LRO mission progresses and coverage increases, scientists will have a better picture of how common these young graben are and what other types of tectonic features are nearby. The graben systems the team finds may help scientists refine the state of stress in the lunar crust.
"It was a big surprise when I spotted graben in the far side highlands," said co-author Mark Robinson of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, principal investigator of LROC. "I immediately targeted the area for high-resolution stereo images so we could create a three-dimensional view of the graben. It's exciting when you discover something totally unexpected and only about half the lunar surface has been imaged in high resolution. There is much more of the moon to be explored."

[@newdrew2744]

0:48 the lines/mountain ridgelines shows absolute proof of Expression Tectonics. Those stretched out mountains and land masses fit like puzzle pieces. Planets and moons grow and expand!

[@avi7214]

Earthquakes are usually caused by the movement of the crust, which is divided into tectonic plates. When these plates move; for example, past each other, then they can get stuck, build in pressure and releease this as an earthquake

[@Peter5930]

@peyo001 Yes, it's still warm; there's a zone of partial melt in the lower mantle and there's a small metallic core with a molten outer region, a solid inner region and a temperature of 1600-1700 K. There's no plate tectonics though; the cool, solid regions of crust and mantle are far too thick to form plates that could be subject to subduction and recycling (I don't know if plate tectonics occurred in the past, but I doubt it contributed meaningfully to the moon as we see it today).

[@Energy321com]

I MUST say you guy do a GREAT job over there!!!

[@Sharla_Smith]

Hmm, my Astronomy teacher would be interested in this- especially since our topic is currently the moon. May we use your videos for a class reference?

[@MrBadMushroom]

Just bought a macbook air and your videos are the best to watch in hd. Even though they were my favourite anyways.

[@gulugul78]

Exactly like earth......growing

[@hellomate639]

A geologically active moon... That is fascinating, especially thinking of that fact when I look up at the moon...

[@vermura]

I found it amusing that when I went to click on the comment that you responded to, it no longer existed. Crushed.

[@DXMediaTV]

Neal Adams Expanding Earth

[@kurtisbrooks1699]

Why are humans so stupid. The Earth is flat. The Universe revolves around the earth. Why do we commit to dumb dogmatic thought?

[@lazyjesus6573]

Noyfb “growing Earth”.

[@lazyjesus6573]

Kurtis Brooks the earth is proven not t be flat. The flat earth is merely a hypothesis ie just dogmatic thought. Ipsedixitism. The Earth is living, a consciously aware entity, ecosystem. The small mind perceives it as all separated but the deep thinking mind can see it is all connected as one. From micro to macro. See the teachings of the Buddha. The Universe does not revolve around the Earth, the Earth is one part of a whole, living entity, a galaxy amongst countless galaxies, clockworking together. A fractalised creation. Don’t think in only two dimensions. #ThinkMultiple

[@Noname31a]

Interesting. A man predicted this 1400 years ago.

[@tiagotiagot]

Moonquakes, yeah baby!

[@huynguyen21117]

Im going to watch all the space videos from this channel to gain science knowledge

[@agentx3]

This is quite interesting. Thanks for the video.

[@armoredduck]

Solar power would probably cheaper and easier. Geothermal power requires deep drilling, so getting that equipment to the moon is very costly compared to very light solar panels

[@Peter5930]

@afa78djd The point of mining the moon for water isn't to ship it back to Earth, but to use it in situ, in cases where water, or it's components oxygen and hydrogen, would otherwise need to be shipped from Earth to the moon at great expense to support activities there. Water on Earth is almost worthless, but water on the moon is worth it's weight in gold for anyone trying to build and maintain a moonbase, due to the enormous cost of launching materials from Earth to the moon.

[@Nimbus3690]

well thats new. didnt expect any surprises coming outta the moon

[@agonyflips]

The moon orbits in an Elliptic shape. As it exerts tidal forces on earth, the earth exerts tidal forces on it, & like bending a paperclip back and forth the friction causes heat within the moon.

[@MrOopsidaisy]

I would think it quite counter intuitive to think that any object in space would be truly geologically inactive.

[@peyo001]

So does this mean that the moon is still warm on the inside? My year 12 geophysics told me (long time ago now I admit) that these Horst and Graben formations are a result of plate tectonics, at least that is how I remember it.

[@hellomate639]

@NIN1024 Yeah. I know how you feel. I feel a double edged sword with it though. The more information I absorb about the scale of space, the more I tend to think of scale as a property of the universe. Like radio waves are as long as a football field and gamma rays are extremely tiny wavelengths. So while I am admiring the scale, the more I just feel like I'm just another phenomenon somewhere in between the very large and the very small.

[@ElGatoLoco698]

Did he say when the Moon cools it has a tendency to shrink? That's odd. I've always been taught things expand when cooled. That's why you don't put a glass of water in the freezer. It will expand and break the glass.

[@carminesstory]

@Solja2010 I doubt it, it might cause greater (but barely noticeable) waves in the far future though, if it continues to grow

[@wesleyjames81]

i wish i didnt have to see ads for terrible tv shows when im trying to learn something.

[@Alpha6059]

Ver, very cool!

[@Adamas97]

This video wasn't very informative. Where is the how, why, and what is going to happen over time?

[@grofinet]

Good old moon!!!

[@radivojr]

Moon is artificial and hollow made of titanium, it was 5th moon of Maldek (5th planed destroyed, now asteroid belt) originally

[@cartmanofsp]

How long did it take for the earth or the moon to cool down?

[@TravvyG]

@TheWizardWeiss Depends how much of the Moon goes into space but either way it would be a bad bad idea.. basically we should be protecting the Moon from Asteroids and other threats like we would for our own planet

[@newdrew2744]

Here's a secret. Look at 2:15 The dark parts of the moon are the lower plates (land) like our ocean floors... And like Earth, the upper plates can fit closing the lower land. Look at the white part of the moon and see how it has stretched and expanded showing new lower land. See the puzzle.

[@dayze338]

Does that mean that the moon has a liquid core still? Even a little bit of one? How can it be geologically active??

[@cartmanofsp]

@WILDLEGHORN Wow, why won't they come sooner? Are they busy?

[@kasperDK100]

Is it possible the Moon could still have a tiny little molten core? I mean what could Else cause the movements if it was just a dead lump of Stone?

[@06livefast]

@fastpulses everything and space goes hand in hand if you think about it..

[@ron7006]

nice use of the word graben

[@mlglookapples7364]

Well if it shrinks we are fucked

[@TheZachary86]

@DaBamBamMan I don't like the term contraction and expansion. When they use the term expand or shrink. to me that's like the moon is increasing or decreasing in mass. He could've said that it is geologically active and it forms Grabens and Lobate scarp. You don't say the Earth is expanding or shrinking do you?

[@angstmuffinofdoom5094]

I don’t understand what exactly is going on and why this is significant?

[@armoredduck]

The Earth isn't stretched into an oval shape by the moon. Its called centrifugal force. The Earth is shaped the way it is due to its spin. The moon affects the tides and to some extent the magma sea that surrounds the Earth's iron core

[@robh5748]

Wrong on all counts

[@nc17atnce101]

am I the only one thinking of eating space candy from the space museum

[@quaxk]

fascinating

[@La.máquina.de.los.sueños]

do the moon get's energy from her proximity with the Earth (gravitationnal pull/push effect like on Jupeter/Saturn moons)?

[@matreyia]

@ChristopherJManess - Thanks for the info, though I was already aware of that. The English took it from the German...was the point.

[@Binerexis]

We're more than competent in how gravity works.

[@MD_Slaine]

@MKShadowX They're. They are.

[@Gliese581f]

Would it be possible for the moon to form an atmospere?

[@shoa31]

oh shit! I'm turning into a werewolf watching this video.

[@Stue-e]

we're more than competent in everything then? all we know is what we can observe, and what we can piece together. it doesnt mean we know how to manipulate gravity, or how exactly to bend its rules, or if we can even bend its rules.

[@ChristopherJManess]

@matreyia Graben also means ditch in English.

[@xyxean]

the moon is actually an alien space ship in disguise...

[@Etimespace]

Nucleus of atoms expanding and recycling dark expanding pushing force waves which have a nature of expanding lights. 😀

[@spudlington]

@MKShadowX does 306'th count?

[@BrodyLuv2]

@Solja2010 It gave us all that extra water last time,when it arrived..buy an umbrella.

[@ujgilani]

geologically active means ??

[@cool70200]

Oh well, I'll have to build my first colony on mars then. Weyland-Yutani - "Building Better Worlds"

[@MinEcraFTZXz]

what did he say?

[@Rushaoz]

@MissSleepyhed The earth DOES do the same. The moon pulls on the earth and stretches into an oval like shape.

[@AznNerdz]

its an egg. a giant egg. ITS ALIIIVE!!

[@robh5748]

that would mean NASA are a bunch of lying crooks. Can't be true

[@SRDTL]

@ujgilani I think that its ground goes through changes.

[@teenee4]

next vid: ETs are on the moon & other people from the past have visited the moon.

[@conablis1645]

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH VIOLENCE ON THE INTERNET?!?!

[@matreyia]

@ChristopherJManess - Das stimmt.

[@AliHSyed]

Graben sounds like aliens from the moon

[@TheZachary86]

Is it really expanding? or does he mean there are geological activities happening?

[@MrPlatonist]

Lol, there's a channel called VideoFromSpace that steals all space vids on youtube and uploads them shortly after the originals go online. Someone should stop them

[@lavoie84qc]

@xFranzTV why?

[@TheSisko1]

@xyxean and they are called Grobenites

[@shoa31]

Only if there's oil on the moon, it would have been a city since July 1969.

[@reeft]

Graben is German for "trench"

[@Sharla_Smith]

@AngelixArch Yeah but a lot of people don't want other people to use their videos/books/webpages/etc- for classroom activities. So I want to be fair and ask. :)

[@TimTheImpaler]

Could you use the Moon's heat to power a moon base? ...or is that question so stupid that if stupidity was an energy source my question could power every major city for a week?

[@AtheistRex]

@tamenga88 "Photograph an Apollo landing site." Already been done.

[@DaBamBamMan]

@TheZachary86 Did yo even watch the video? He said in some places it is SHRINKING,and in others it is EXPANDING. Only 2:30, watch it.

[@lowpricedpaint]

Let's talk about the forces that bring the earth, and the moon together. Or how the moon has shaped the entire planet earth, or the earth has shaped the entire moon. Is there anyone who is aware, besides myself, that every weather pattern over the earth, is a reversed lunar surface pattern. Like the fact that the flipped lunar south pole is an exact match of Antarctica. You need to be aware of this if you are to know the real science of the moon, because it still shapes the earth every single day of your life.

[@MargaretsLight]

oh.,just like tectonic plates shifting., other parts sink while other parts pull apart.,and unleash new land. kinda cool to think about it., our moon., geologically active., :D

[@ChrisSmullen]

Space is so much more interesting than religion.

[@MovieTrim]

Take that you VATICAN!

[@aymanloghod6603]

Islam is right

[@The44kGaming]

...and then a big dinosaur came out.

[@growingneeds]

The moon is geologically active now? A bad time to be active since the prophecies of 2012 are due.

[@spudlington]

coldnt these effects of expansion and contraction be explained by earths gravity combined with minimal core activity? if you are not a scientist, then no comments please trolls, amateur scientists are, however, welcome to comment

[@hellomate639]

@growingneeds The disparity between the rationality of scientists and the rationality of 2012 prophecy people is something that I find quite hilarious when those prophesiers make extrapolations about scientific findings...

[@radivojr]

@loki0807 from dozens of sources, you should research yourself, but i can point you for example to Sheldan Nidle and David Icke

[@Dillinger86]

in 50 to 75 thousand years from now the moon will be terraformed.

[@jongmagee]

@xyxean David icke??

[@NiteOwl1224]

OMG maybe the moon is gunna explode and that would be the end of the earth. 2012 baby

[@RigelOrionBeta]

@culwin It is known.

[@Darisha123]

Zerglings!!!

[@xBris]

Graben - lol ^^

[@MsKTMvalley]

Science is cool :)

[@tyler332425]

wait maybe its not like the other panets becuase of how it was formed fromm that planet crashing into earth in their other video

[@cartmanofsp]

@WILDLEGHORN Are you mocking me?

[@matreyia]

Graben....graves or trench. (auf Deutsch)

[@Ine7tia]

@tamenga88 It's not a debate.

[@Skateandcreate9]

@smiley7890 and its true too!

[@spicyvOHMitsnack]

graben...what a funny word.

[@gaminggalor]

AND THEN A LARGE CHICKEN CAME OUT AND ATE MARS AND THEN MAGATRON KILLED IT THEN OPTIMUS PRIME KILLED HIM THE SPACERIP WENT ALL ASAAASSSHHHHHFFFFHHHGGG DFKSJDFJSDKJF SDKJFSDKJFAKSJFKSDJFLKDASF!!!!!!!!! then i went AWSOME!!

[@Wotanraven]

@lahoucine66 Sure, science is still working on many things, and religion is hanging on to what science hasn't totally explained yet. We do already have a pretty good idea of how the moon was formed, although sure, it's not certain. But one thing is for sure, Mohammed did not split the moon in two. If he had, civilizations interested in astronomy from around the world would have written about it (Europeans, Chinese, Mayas...). I'd suggest you consider that verse a metaphor, if not a mistake.

[@indalecio21]

@culwin And earth is the dinner :S ?