» Home > In the News

Is the Moon fading away?

11 February 2014
Astronomy

Not perhaps fading as moving away – go to http://phys.org/print310978191.html … the Apollo astronauts and Soviet Russian'Moon Rovers' left various things behind on the visits to the moon – including reflectors. These are now being used to bounce laser beams at them in order to measure the distance between the moon and earth and if it varies. According to the results, it may well do. Whether this is a pecularity of the orbit of the Moon or something else is the nub of the debate. The something else is the possibility that moon ragoliths and space dust may have caused the reflectors to dull and therefore give the impression it is moving away from us. What's the betting?

Skip to content