The Moon Is Shrinking Like a Wrinkled Apple 116
astroengine writes "New observations by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have uncovered a number of previously unknown, recently formed 'lobate scarps' — raised cliffs about 9 meters high and several kilometers long — over the lunar surface. These scarps form along thrust faults where compression forces the moon's crust to rise. Up until now it was thought these lobate scarps only occurred around the lunar equator, but the high resolution LRO imagery suggests they are ubiquitous, regardless of latitude. As the moon is geologically inactive, what could be creating these features? It would appear the moon's surface is acting like the skin of an apple surrounding the shrinking, dehydrated flesh of the fruit; the lunar crust (skin) is wrinkling as the body of the moon (the flesh) shrinks due to cooling contraction inside the moon's core."
The analogy is all wrong (Score:3, Funny)
This more like the aging of a round of cheese.
Amazing (Score:5, Funny)
It's just (Score:5, Funny)
it's just shrinkage cuz it's cold in space. Happens to every moon, doesn't it?
Nuke it (Score:2, Funny)
The only way to guarantee our safety is to nuke it to ashes before anything unexpected or bad happens. Plus everyone will receive free apple pie from the sky.
Al Gore says.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The analogy is all wrong (Score:5, Funny)
"That's no moon - it's an aging round of cheese."
"An aging round of cheese? No one could make an aging round ..... wait a minute...Chewie quick, get out the crackers..."
Re:Nuke it (Score:2, Funny)
teehee (Score:3, Funny)
Frylock: "What happened to your body, man?"
Meatwad: "Well, it's obvious isn't it? Thermal expansion."
Frylock: "No it's not thermal expansion. I know what thermal expansion is."
Meatwad: "Okay, fine. I'm sure that you do. Let's see, how can I explain this without blowing your mind?"
Frylock: "Oh yes, please. Dumb it down for me."
Meatwad: "Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle tells us that at a specific curvature of space, knowledge can be transferred into energy."
Frylock: "Heisenberg's Uncert-"
Meatwad: "Or...and this is key now...matter."
Frylock: "No it does not!"
Meatwad: "Well, some people struggle with Heisenberg. Look! Here's a toy! It goes up and down on a string, doesn't that look like fun?"
Frylock: "Get that thing out of my face!"
Meatwad: "Why don't you go take that into the other room, while the adults are doing important research here."
Frylock: "Oh, I'm sorry professor. I didn't realize that knowledge could also transform you into an arrogant ass."
Wrinkled Apple (Score:5, Funny)
I'm so angry. Cancel my subscription. I'm done here.
Nah... (Score:2, Funny)
So it's the next Apple product (Score:3, Funny)
iMoon, Wrinkle Different
Re:Tides? (Score:5, Funny)
Hur dur, except that's exactly what was surprising about finding the scarping places other than the lunar equator.
Shrinking like the skin of an apple (Score:3, Funny)
OMG, in a few thousand millennia the man in the moon will look like Ronald Reagan!
Re:Al Gore says.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:In this manner.... (Score:4, Funny)
Only it's not quite as old....
It gets old ... (Score:5, Funny)
... it gets wrinkled.
Pretty soon, it starts yelling at the kids to stay off its lawn.
Re:It's just (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The analogy is all wrong (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Al Gore says.. (Score:2, Funny)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time the Luna Wolves did a major attack, didn't we end up with a galaxy-crushing war on our hands?
Re:It's just (Score:1, Funny)
Re:The analogy is all wrong (Score:3, Funny)
Don't Brie silly, the Tyning was all off.
Because it's a weather balloon (Score:2, Funny)
It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the liberals have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans.
Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the liberals have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors .. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the liberals will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at Berkeley is updated with information about you.
Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the liberal community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!
Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.