The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has found evidence that areas of the moon's surface stretched some within the past 50 million years, creating tiny valleys.

The discovery was made with a small but powerful camera developed in San Diego by Malin Space Science Systems, the same company whose instruments have detected geologic change on Mars that point to the past presence of water.

In announcing the finding, NASA said the LRO camera built by MSSS shows "small, narrow trenches typically much longer than they are wide. This indicates the lunar crust is being pulled apart at these locations.

"These linear valleys, known as graben, form when the moon's crust stretches, breaks and drops down along two bounding faults. A handful of these graben systems have been found across the lunar surface."

The findings are contained in a scientific paper co-authored by Thomas Watters of e Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

He says in the NASA release that, "The graben tell us forces acting to shrink the moon were overcome in places by forces acting to pull it apart. This means the contractional forces shrinking the moon cannot be large, or the small graben might never form."

NASA is likely to be involved in additional scientific revelations. Last November, the space agency launched the Mars Science Laboratory, a spacecraft whose lander is equipped with two cameras that will serve as the rover's "eyes."

MSSS also built a camera that's located on the lander's robotic arm, and an instrument that will monitor the spacecraft's descent on to the Martian surface in August. (Full story.)