Scientists Shocked to Discover Shift in Moon’s Axis

Ice patches discovered near the poles may be an indication that the moon's axis has experienced a shift, eons ago. This discovery has left the scientists astonished and excited about the evolution of moon and its developing structure.

Matt Siegler, study lead author of Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said he and his team examined measurements that the two spacecraft made, NASA's Lunar Prospector (LP), orbited the between January 1998 and July 1999, and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), presently orbiting the moon.

The data collected from the spacecraft shows ice deposits, as expected. However, signs of large patches were also spotted near each pole, balanced at 5.5 degrees. Scientists found that if they joined these two patches in a straight line, passing through the moon's body, it would look like body's axis.

According to the team, ice patches are an indication that the rotational axis of the moon has shifted by 5.5 degrees due to inequitable allocation of lunar mass. Based on models, scientists predict that these were the actual poles of the moon, approximately 3 billion years ago.

"Models are models," commented Sigler, "so you can make the migration happen any time between 1.5-4.5 billion years ago depending on how you tweak parameters (such as the past rigidity of the lunar crust), but it most likely was around 3 billion years ago."

Researchers claim that the lunar poles shifted at the rate of roughly an inch after every 126 years. By that calculation, the moon's axis has experienced about 125 miles of shift in about a billion years.

The scientists are hoping to better understand the water's origin on Earth looking at the ice at these poles which is likely to be very old. Siegler continued, "The ice may be a time capsule from the same source that supplied the original water to Earth. This is a record we don't have on Earth. Earth has reworked itself so many times, there's nothing that old left here. Ancient ice from the moon could provide answers to this deep mystery."

The findings of the study were published in the journal Nature.