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A billion years ago, the Moon was much closer to Earth than it will be tonight. Its tighter orbit meant it needed just 20 days to go around us. A day on Earth back then was only 18 hours long.

十亿年前，月球与地球之间的距离可比今晚它俩之间的距离要近得多。那时月球运行轨道较小，绕我们一周也就需要20天的时间，当时地球上的一天也就只有18个小时。

Things continue to change, of course. Earth's rotation rate is still slowing down--our days are getting longer and longer. Eventually, our planetary rotational change will pretty much cease. Earth's day will be a month long. When this happens, billions of years from now, the terrestrial month will be longer--about 40 of our current days--because during all this time the Moon will continue moving away from us. Each year, the Moon steals some of Earth's rotational energy, and uses it to propel itself about 3.8 centimeters higher in its orbit. Researchers say that when it formed, the Moon was about 14,000 miles from Earth. It's now more than 280,000 miles away. Bye bye Moon!

当然，一切都在继续变化。地球的旋转速度仍在减慢——我们一天的时间正越变越长。最终，我们星球的转动速度也会几近停止。地球上的一天将有一个月那么长。这种情形发生的时候，已是距今几十亿年以后的事了，陆地上的一个月会变得更长——大约是现在的40天——因为在此期间月球将持续远离我们。每年，月球都会偷取地球的部分转动能，让自己在运行轨道中的位置升高大约3.8厘米。研究者们认为，月球形成之时，距离地球约一万四千英里，现在则离我们28万英里以上。再见了，月球！

The upshot: One day your descendants, if they survive a swelling Sun and other cosmic and human perils, will have at least 960 hours to work with each day. On some nights, half the world will be able to stare up at a full Moon. Imagine the loony things they'll have time to imagine, the strange lore they might conjure.

结论：如果你的后代能够幸免于火辣辣的太阳和其他宇宙及人类的灾难，那么将来有一天他们每天至少要工作960个小时。在某些夜晚，世界上一半的人都可以抬头看到满月。试想，在这样的夜晚他们得想出多少疯狂的事，做出多少其思怪想啊。

Top3 Cool Moon Facts 揭秘酷酷月球三头条

Punching bag 沙袋

The Moon's heavily cratered surface is the result of intense pummelling by space rocks between 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago. The scars of this war, seen as craters, have not eroded much for two main reasons: The Moon is not geologically very active, so earthquakes, volcanoes and mountainbuilding don't destroy the landscape as they do on Earth; and with virtually no atmosphere there is no wind or rain, so very little surface erosion occurs.

月球表面遍布的环形山是由41亿年到38亿年前太空陨石剧烈撞击月球而形成的。这场太空大战的累累伤疤也就是我们看到的环形山，它们没有遭到严重侵蚀，只要有两大原因：月球的地质运动不是很活跃，因此地震、火山喷发和造山运动不会像它们在地球上那样会对地貌造成破坏；而且，月球上其实没有大气，也就没有风雨，因此几乎不会发生什么月表的风化侵蚀现象。

Egghead 鸡蛋

The Moon is not round. Instead, it's shaped like an egg. And the Moon's center of mass is not at the geometric center of the satellite; it's about 1.2 miles off-center.

月球不是圆的。它的形状倒挺像只鸡蛋的。而且月球这颗卫星的质心也不在其正中心上，而且偏离中心大约1.2英里。

Moonquakes 月震

Apollo astronauts used seismometers during their visits to the Moon and discovered that the gray orb isn't a totally dead place, geologically speaking. Small moonquakes, originating several kilometers below the surface, are thought to be caused by the gravitational pull of Earth. Sometimes tiny fractures appear at the surface, and gas escapes.

阿波罗航天飞船的宇航员们登月时使用地震检波器发现：这个灰色的星球，从地质学角度上讲，并不完全是一个死气沉沉的地方。发源自月球表面以下几英里的轻微月震据估计是由地球引力的牵引造成的。有时月球表面会出现小裂缝，而且会有气体从中溢出。