{"id":635367,"date":"2026-10-19T15:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T15:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/635367\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T15:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T15:06:08","slug":"nasa-confirms-it-the-moon-is-now-smaller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/635367\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA confirms it: the Moon is now smaller"},"content":{"rendered":"

A study funded by NASA, and published in\u00a0The Planetary Science Journal, has determined that the Moon’s radius has decreased by about 45 meters. The scientists’ analysis concluded that this reduction occurred over the last 400 to 800 million years. Every million years, according to the report’s estimates, the Earth\u2019s satellite\u2019s radius would shrink by between 6 and 11 centimeters. In other words, 0.1 micrometers (0.0001 millimeters) per year.<\/p>\n

Aside from this fact, the research funded by the U.S. space agency has identified more than 10,000 faults on the Moon as a result of studying images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, in orbit since 2009.\u00a0This finding could pose a setback for exploration of the satellite: NASA is considering establishing a lunar base with basic infrastructure<\/a>\u00a0in 2032. Until then, efforts are focused on determining possible locations for the installation.<\/p>\n

The large number of faults detected goes beyond mere scientific curiosity, as it could pose a setback for future crewed missions. The reason is that, unlike the Earth, with 15 major tectonic plates, the Moon has a single plate. This causes an earthquake, or a moonquake, to occur anywhere on the Earth’s satellite. The scientists responsible for the study have been surprised\u00a0<\/p>\n

NASA’s future lunar base<\/p>\n

The NASA has divided its program into three phases. The first, from now until 2029, focuses on exploring the lunar surface using robots. In the second stage, between 2029 and 2032, the infrastructure for the future lunar base will begin to be deployed. From 2032 onward, NASA already expects to have a fully functional outpost where astronauts can live and work. Reaching the Moon is a first step toward possible missions to Mars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A study funded by NASA, and published in\u00a0The Planetary Science Journal, has determined that the Moon’s radius has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-635367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}