Recent research has overturned the long-held belief that the Moon has been "geologically dead" for billions of years. A team of scientists from the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Institution has discovered 266 previously unknown small ridges on the far side of the Moon that formed as recently as 84 million years ago.
Using data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers employed crater counting techniques to date these features. "The more craters a surface has, the older it is," explains lead researcher Jaclyn Clark. "After counting the craters around these small ridges and seeing that some of the ridges cut through existing impact craters, we believe these landforms were tectonically active in the last 160 million years."
This discovery is significant because it suggests the Moon's interior may be more dynamic than previously thought. While most scientists believed lunar geological activity ended 2.5-3 billion years ago, these findings indicate tectonic activity continued much more recently and may still be occurring today.
What's particularly interesting is that this is the first evidence of recent geological activity across the Moon as a whole, not just on the near side. This challenges our understanding of planetary evolution and raises questions about what might be driving this unexpected activity.
What other "dead" celestial bodies might actually show signs of recent geological processes? And what implications might this have for future lunar exploration and potential bases?
barbazoo · 15h ago
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Using data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers employed crater counting techniques to date these features. "The more craters a surface has, the older it is," explains lead researcher Jaclyn Clark. "After counting the craters around these small ridges and seeing that some of the ridges cut through existing impact craters, we believe these landforms were tectonically active in the last 160 million years."
This discovery is significant because it suggests the Moon's interior may be more dynamic than previously thought. While most scientists believed lunar geological activity ended 2.5-3 billion years ago, these findings indicate tectonic activity continued much more recently and may still be occurring today.
What's particularly interesting is that this is the first evidence of recent geological activity across the Moon as a whole, not just on the near side. This challenges our understanding of planetary evolution and raises questions about what might be driving this unexpected activity.
What other "dead" celestial bodies might actually show signs of recent geological processes? And what implications might this have for future lunar exploration and potential bases?