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 [email protected]. "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》雜志消息稱，最近,，通過(guò)軌道船拍攝的照片顯示,，月球正不斷受到嚴(yán)重的侵蝕。月球表面出現(xiàn)的裂縫和洞慢慢地向太空中釋放氣體和塵埃,。

    比利時(shí)Sprodj原子研究中心的天文地理學(xué)家Brad Kawalkowizc對(duì)照片進(jìn)行分析后指出,，如果按這個(gè)速度，最終月球?qū)氐妆罎ⅰ?/p>

    目前為止,，研究人員還未能確定引起月球侵蝕的原因,。Kawalkowizc認(rèn)為二十世紀(jì)六、七十年代阿波羅號(hào)登陸月球之后留下的細(xì)菌可能是原因之一,。地球上的這些細(xì)菌,，一旦在月球表面接觸到強(qiáng)烈的紫外線輻射，就可能進(jìn)行突變,，進(jìn)而銷蝕月球上的巖石,。

    第谷隕石坑(Tycho Crater)剛形成不久，遭受的影響最為嚴(yán)重,。加拿大國(guó)家航空委員會(huì)的高級(jí)官員Haywood Floyd說(shuō)：“我們希望能派遣一組遠(yuǎn)征隊(duì)去月球上調(diào)查,。”

    為什么天文學(xué)家到現(xiàn)在才發(fā)現(xiàn)這個(gè)問(wèn)題呢？此類譴責(zé)早已存在,。一些地面的業(yè)余天文愛(ài)好者也已報(bào)道指出,，月球反射的光圖案很模糊，也許表示月球表面的反射能力正在減弱,。

    專家們一致認(rèn)為,，月球的瓦解將會(huì)是一大災(zāi)難，因?yàn)榈厍蛏系某彼畷?huì)因此而停止,，同時(shí)整個(gè)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)也會(huì)受到影響,。

    但是，也有人持樂(lè)觀態(tài)度,。中英格蘭大學(xué)海岸地質(zhì)學(xué)家Barry Surge指出,，如果沒(méi)有了潮水，在未來(lái)2個(gè)世紀(jì)內(nèi),，就不需要再更新倫敦的洪水防御體系了,。