再過幾十億年,人類每天要工作960小時
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.
十億年前，月球與地球之間的距離可比今晚它倆之間的距離要近得多。那時月球運行軌道較小，繞我們一週也就需要20天的時間，當時地球上的一天也就只有18個小時。
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!
當然，一切都在繼續變化。地球的旋轉速度仍在減慢——我們一天的時間正越變越長。最終，我們星球的轉動速度也會幾近停止。地球上的一天將有一個月那麼長。這種情形發生的時候，已是距今幾十億年以後的事了，陸地上的一個月會變得更長——大約是現在的40天——因爲在此期間月球將持續遠離我們。每年，月球都會偷取地球的部分轉動能，讓自己在運行軌道中的位置升高大約3.8釐米。研究者們認爲，月球形成之時，距離地球約一萬四千英里，現在則離我們28萬英里以上。再見了，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.
結論：如果你的後代能夠倖免於火辣辣的太陽和其他宇宙及人類的災難，那麼將來有一天他們每天至少要工作960個小時。在某些夜晚，世界上一半的人都可以擡頭看到滿月。試想，在這樣的夜晚他們得想出多少瘋狂的事，做出多少其思怪想啊。
Top3 Cool Moon Facts 揭祕酷酷月球三頭條
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.
月球表面遍佈的環形山是由41億年到38億年前太空隕石劇烈撞擊月球而形成的。這場太空大戰的累累傷疤也就是我們看到的環形山，它們沒有遭到嚴重侵蝕，只要有兩大原因：月球的地質運動不是很活躍，因此地震、火山噴發和造山運動不會像它們在地球上那樣會對地貌造成破壞；而且，月球上其實沒有大氣，也就沒有風雨，因此幾乎不會發生什麼月表的風化侵蝕現象。
Egghead 雞蛋
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.
月球不是圓的。它的形狀倒挺像只雞蛋的。而且月球這顆衛星的質心也不在其正中心上，而且偏離中心大約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.
阿波羅航天飛船的宇航員們登月時使用地震檢波器發現：這個灰色的星球，從地質學角度上講，並不完全是一個死氣沉沉的地方。發源自月球表面以下幾英里的輕微月震據估計是由地球引力的牽引造成的。有時月球表面會出現小裂縫，而且會有氣體從中溢出。
