NASA’s stunning revelation that the Moon is effectively shrinking “like a raisin” has sparked fears among those who favour doomsday scenarios that the Moon and the planet it orbits are about to collapse, according to reports.
Doomsday preacher Paul Begley from West Lafayette in Indiana, US, has only fuelled the fire of these “day of reckoning” concerns.
He addressed an online audience via a YouTube livestream, warning that scientists are beginning to buy into the biblical prophecy of the Apocalypse.
According to the evangelical pastor, "there was a report out yesterday the Moon is shrinking.”
“Inside the Moon is like a raisin – they’re saying that the Moon is starting to shrink like a raisin shrinks. That internally, the core of the Moon, something is going on in there. Is the Moon about to collapse? What does that mean? The Bible says there shall be signs in the Sun and the Moon and the stars.”
The biblical passage reads: “There will be signs in the Sun, Moon and stars. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near." According to Begley, the “signs” prove the biblical prophecy is manifesting itself.
The American evangelist claims humanity is currently living in the end time and that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is almost upon us.
Backed by pseudo-scientific claims about the world’s imminent demise, the preacher urged the world to prepare for what is coming.
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But is the Moon really about to collapse? Not according to NASA.
The lunar process, which triggers earthquakes on the Moon, was described in the journal Nature Geosciences on May 13.
According to a scientist at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, Thomas Watters, the lunar shrinking is a powerful but incredibly drawn out process.
The expert said “our analysis gives the first evidence that these faults are still active and likely producing moonquakes today as the Moon continues to gradually cool and shrink. Some of these quakes can be fairly strong, around five on the Richter Scale.”
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Since the Moon’ surface began to shrink millions of years ago, the Moon has shrunk by about by 150ft (50m).