WASHINGTON, DC.- New images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft show that the moon’s crust is being slightly stretched, forming small valleys—at least in some small areas. High-resolution images obtained by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera provide evidence that these valleys are very young, suggesting the moon has experienced relatively recent geologic activity. The findings are reported by a team from Arizona State University, Johns Hopkins University and the Smithsonian Institution, led by Smithsonian scientist Thomas Watters, in a paper, “Recent Extensional Tectonics on the Moon Revealed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera,” appearing in the March issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. In new LROC images, the team discovered small, narrow graben typically only hundreds to a few thousand meters (yards) long