Pictures taken from orbit show the Moon's serious scars.
Apollo bacteria spur lunar erosion
Michael Hopkin & Mark Peplow
Images reveal worrying cracks in the face of the Moon.
Pictures captured by an orbiting spacecraft have revealed that the Moon is being heavily eroded. Images of the lunar surface reveal deep cracks and holes that are slowly but surely releasing gas and dust into space.
"This is serious," says Brad Kawalkowizc, an astrogeologist from the Sprodj Atomic Research Centre in Belgium, who has analysed the pictures. "There really is less Moon up there than there used to be." If the process continues, he adds, the Moon could eventually crumble away to nothing.
Researchers are not yet certain what is causing the erosion. Kawalkowizc suggests that bacteria left behind by the Apollo Moon landings of the 1960s and 1970s may be responsible. These earthly bacteria, exposed to intense ultraviolet radiation on the lunar surface, could have acquired mutations that allow them to digest Moon rocks, he suggests.
"If those guys didn't wipe their feet when they stepped off the craft then, yes, there could be bugs up there eating the rock," he says. "And after three decades there must be tonnes of them."
"I'm amazed that we didn't notice this before." --Earnest Sober (EcoLunar)
Crater fuss
Tycho crater, the youngest large-impact crater on the Moon's nearside, is particularly badly affected. The erosion has already revealed a large slab of jet-black rock deep in the crater, which has unusual magnetic properties. "We hope to send a manned expedition to investigate," says Haywood Floyd, a senior official with the Canadian National Council of Aeronautics, Newfoundland.
Recriminations are already brewing over why astronomers didn't spot the problem earlier. Amateurs on the ground have reported, on an almost monthly basis, that the light reflected from the Moon shows a dimming pattern: perhaps a sign that its weathered surface was becoming less reflective.
"I'm amazed that we didn't notice this before," says Earnest Sober of EcoLunar, a California-based charity that campaigns for sustainable management of the Moon. "We've only got one Moon and it's about time we started paying it a bit more attention."
One thing on which experts agree is that the Moon's disintegration would be a disaster, as tides on Earth would effectively stop. "This really would be bad for us," comments Pete Swell of the World Surfers' Association. "Life would sure be a lot less fun. And I guess, like, fish and ecosystems might totally be affected too."
Time and tide
But others are seeing a positive side. "Without tides, there would be no need to upgrade London's flood defences for the next two centuries," says coastal geologist Barry Surge of the University of Middle England in Barnstaple, UK. "As it is, if you live on the River Thames flood plain, the Moon is your enemy."
John Koenig, director of Moonbase Alpha, a US project to establish a habitable colony on the Moon, insists that there is absolutely nothing to worry about. "There's absolutely nothing to worry about," he told news@nature.com. "Do you really think we would invest in building a base on prime interplanetary real estate that is evaporating?"
The images of the Moon were captured on 1 April by the Floating Optical Orbital Lens, as part of a multinational effort to photograph the Apollo landing sites. The mission aims to prove, once and for all and at fantastic expense, that the NASA astronauts really did go there.
《自然》杂志消息称，最近，通过轨道船拍摄的照片显示，月球正不断受到严重的侵蚀。月球表面出现的裂缝和洞慢慢地向太空中释放气体和尘埃。
比利时Sprodj原子研究中心的天文地理学家Brad Kawalkowizc对照片进行分析后指出，如果按这个速度，最终月球将彻底崩溃。
目前为止，研究人员还未能确定引起月球侵蚀的原因。Kawalkowizc认为二十世纪六、七十年代阿波罗号登陆月球之后留下的细菌可能是原因之一。地球上的这些细菌，一旦在月球表面接触到强烈的紫外线辐射，就可能进行突变，进而销蚀月球上的岩石。
第谷陨石坑(Tycho Crater)刚形成不久，遭受的影响最为严重。加拿大国家航空委员会的高级官员Haywood Floyd说：“我们希望能派遣一组远征队去月球上调查。”
为什么天文学家到现在才发现这个问题呢？此类谴责早已存在。一些地面的业余天文爱好者也已报道指出，月球反射的光图案很模糊，也许表示月球表面的反射能力正在减弱。
专家们一致认为，月球的瓦解将会是一大灾难，因为地球上的潮水会因此而停止，同时整个生态系统也会受到影响。
但是，也有人持乐观态度。中英格兰大学海岸地质学家Barry Surge指出，如果没有了潮水，在未来2个世纪内，就不需要再更新伦敦的洪水防御体系了。
