[TimeStar] Apollo bacteria spur lunar erosion. :o)

[Terry]

> http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050328/pf/050328-10_pf.html
>
>     Published online: 1 April 2005;

    Apollo bacteria spur lunar erosion

    Michael Hopkin & Mark Peplow http://www.nature.com/news/about/aboutus.html#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.
                                                                             Pictures taken
    "This is serious," says Brad Kawalkowizc, an astrogeologist from the     from orbit show
    Sprodj Atomic Research Centre in Belgium, who has analysed the pictures. the Moon's
    "There really is less Moon up there than there used to be." If the       serious scars.
    process continues, he adds, the Moon could eventually crumble away to    © NASA
    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."
      Crater fuss
       I'm amazed that
                          Tycho crater, the youngest large-impact crater on the Moon's
    we didn't notice      nearside, is particularly badly affected. The erosion has already
    this before.          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.
    Earnest Sober
    EcoLunar
                          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 at 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.

    * Well done for spotting, as we're sure you did, that this story is not in fact true.
    News at nature.com would like to assure readers that, outside the realm of April Fool's Day,
    the Moon remains bacteria-free until anyone proves otherwise.


      Story from news at nature.com: http://news.nature.com//news/2005/050328/050328-10.html
  [Nature Publishing Group, publisher of Nature, and other science journals and reference works]
  © 2004 Nature Publishing Group
>
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