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Moon

Abandoned Apollo 17 Lunar Module Is Causing Tremors On the Moon (cnn.com) 28

Posted by BeauHD from the seismic-activities dept.
A spacecraft left behind by U.S. astronauts on the lunar surface could be causing small tremors known as moonquakes, according to a new study. CNN reports: Researchers revealed the previously unknown form of seismic activity on the moon for the first time through an analysis of Apollo-era data using modern algorithms. Massive temperature swings that occur on the moon can cause human-made structures to expand and contract in a way that produces these vibrations, the report suggests. The lunar surface is an extreme environment, oscillating between minus 208 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 133 degrees Celsius) in the dark and 250 degrees Fahrenheit (121 degrees Celsius) in direct sun, according to a news release about the study.

In fact, the entire surface of the moon expands and contracts in the cold and heat, noted the study published September 5 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. Yet scientists were able to use a form of artificial intelligence to gain such an intimate understanding of the Apollo-era data that they could pinpoint gentle tremors that emitted from an Apollo 17 lunar lander module sitting a few hundred yards away from instruments recording the moonquakes, according to a synopsis of the study, which was led by Francesco Civilini, a recent California Institute of Technology postdoctoral researcher and a research space scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. (NASA provided funding for the study.)

The analysis offers new insights into how the moon responds to its surroundings and what can affect its seismic activities. The rumbles were not dangerous and likely would be imperceptible to humans standing on the moon's surface.
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Abandoned Apollo 17 Lunar Module Is Causing Tremors On the Moon More

Abandoned Apollo 17 Lunar Module Is Causing Tremors On the Moon

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  • thermal expansion (Score:3)

    by ZERO1ZERO ( 948669 ) on Saturday September 16, 2023 @06:15AM (#63853004)
    > In fact, the entire surface of the moon expands and contracts in the cold and heat, noted the study

    I expect This is because the moon is made of metal, which is well known to contract and expand due to heat

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by burni2 ( 1643061 )

      Do you want to shine a light on the reduced view of that very general explanation, that everything that has a positive temperature coefficient expands when heated and contracts when cooled, hold up true, if not undergoing a phase change or has a triple point(h2o for exmaple -> 4ÂC), during those cycles?

      • What about water that expands when frozen, or teflon (ptfe?) that contracts when warm? Does this fit your equation

        • "if not undergoing a phase change or has a triple point(h2o for exmaple -> 4ÃC), during those cycles?"

          What part of that did you not understand, except why Slashdot still doesn't support unicode?

          • Ive quoted the bits i didnâ(TM)t understand

            âoe positive temperature coefficientâ

            , âoe hold up true,â

            âoe if not undergoing a phase change âoe

            âoeor has a triple pointâ

            âoe(h2o for exmaple -> 4ÃC)â

            This is water at 4 defree c but i dont know what that has to with anything âoe, during those cycles?â

            Not sure

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by PPH ( 736903 )

          But what about cheese?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by thcip ( 2486616 )
      I FOR ONE FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THE LANDER COULD BE THE CAUSE... Well, all 4 legs are wrapped in mylar. Actually, it's a mix of aluminized pyloymide mylar and h-film. It's interwoven with inconel on some other alloy backing. It's a mega-insulator and reflective, so it blocks heat from the sun. NASA was not sure how the surface of the moon was going to react to giant metal landers. Think of the design philosophy for the bases in the South Pole and Arctic regions. Minimal thermal footprint. So why bla

  • But what about (Score:3)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday September 16, 2023 @07:08AM (#63853046)

    Sailors on the Moon? Do they carry a harpoon? Perhaps what NASA is recording is them throwing the harpoon because there are no whales on the Moon. Or maybe it's their nightly singing of whaling tunes.

  • I'm not saying it's aliens... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jedi Holocron ( 225191 ) on Saturday September 16, 2023 @07:34AM (#63853060) Homepage Journal

    ...but technically, it's actually aliens causing this on the moon.

    • I was a little skeptical until I read that that "scientists were able to use a form of artificial intelligence". That is definitely science you can trust.

      (If only we had AI during the pandemic... the public could have swallowed 10x the BS.)

      • Singular value decomposition used to be included in what counted as "machine learning" when that was the thing to brag about maybe 5 or 10 years ago.

        Wouldn't be surprised if the form of AI in question is nothing more exotic than a least squares fit.

    • It is aliens!

      We are the aliens on the moon, and if it's us, it is aliens.

  • The Apollo lander must obey the laws of physics. At most, the lander is going to change size by a few thousandth of an inch. No one is going to sense that standing next to the lander.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hjf ( 703092 )

      For many years I could heard a loud BANG in the middle of the night and didn't know what it was. One night I was outside when I heard the bang, and it came from the shop next to my house: an oil change shop that leaves empty 200L steel drums outside. They are out in the sun all day, and when they cool down at night there is a BANG as they shrink.

  • Where's Kevin Bacon when you need him?

  • Broad definition of tremor (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JoeRobe ( 207552 ) on Saturday September 16, 2023 @08:39AM (#63853116) Homepage

    This explanation totally makes sense, but if we're going to say that this causes "tremors", then so did every person that walked on the moon, and every rover and lander. Technically every animal causes tremors on Earth when they walk, but we don't really bother writing a news story for them.

    The really cool thing about this story is NOT that the lander expansion is causing tremors, but that those small shifts can be detected at all.

    • Get outta here with your “every person that walked on the moon” causing these kinds of tremors nonsense, the thermal expansion and resulting vibrations of the lander feet sliding half a thousands of an inch are millions if not billions of times less energy than a footstep. We are talking about tardigrade fart levels of energy here.

    • Technically every animal causes tremors on Earth when they walk, but we don't really bother writing a news story for them.

      Although if there were (statistically speaking) almost zero animals on Earth, we might ...

      • That's fair, but I assume the Apollo 17 crew put that seismometer there. If so, I bet when they turned it on and walked around the machine went nuts until they finally left. And I bet the NASA scientists looking at that data just basically ignored it because they knew the cause. I doubt there was a news story about it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Technically every animal causes tremors on Earth

      Time for a "yo mama" joke?

    • It's not a broad definition, it's a lie to garner attention.

      Everybody is lying and it needs to stop. Civilizations collapse this way.

      Don't tolerate people who lie about science and discount their future claims.

  • "Tremors on the Moon"

  • Anyone remember a (TV?) movie version of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine where in the future the moon had broken apart due to overmining?

    Now multiply the current "gentle tremors" issue by... I dunno... say a million tons or so.

    But, you know, let's keep leaving spent crap on the moon - especially actual crap:

    https://www.theguardian.com/sc... [theguardian.com]

    I'm sure we'll figure out a solution soon - especially since we've done such a wonderful job cleaning up Earth....

  • You would think after a few billion years of therapy The Moon would have finally gotten over it's separation & creation anxiety ... BUT NOO-O-O !

    Or maybe The Moon has been drinking heavily again and suffers from periodic bouts of the DTs ?

  • We never should have sent a solar-powered boombox and Chuck Berry recordings to the moon with Apollo 17. That got the Luninite teens rocking and it's all been downhill ever since.
  • It's great that modern algorithms and artificial intelligence allow scientists to uncover new details. As someone who is busy writing a research paper on Apollo 13 for a college project, this new data on moonquakes caused by lunar temperature fluctuations is fantastic. With the help of the experts at https://ca.edubirdie.com/pay-f... [edubirdie.com] I am confident that I can write a first-rate research paper that will stand out in my class. So, the new data is most welcome. Science never ceases to amaze me.

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