Apollo 11 landing site on the Moon. This finding has sparked excitement and curiosity within the scientific community as it could potentially serve as a shelter for future explorers. The cave, which is believed to be several meters deep and wide enough to accommodate human visitors, offers a unique opportunity for further exploration and research.
The proximity of this cave to the Apollo 11 landing site is particularly significant as it provides a convenient base for future missions to the Moon. By utilizing this natural shelter, astronauts could avoid exposure to extreme temperatures, radiation, and micrometeorites that pose risks during lunar surface operations. This discovery opens up new possibilities for sustainable human presence on the Moon.
An Italian-led team reported Monday that there’s evidence for a sizable cave accessible from the deepest known pit on the moon. It’s located at the Sea of Tranquility, just 250 miles (400 kilometers) from Apollo 11’s landing site.
The pit, like the more than 200 others discovered up there, was created by the collapse of a lava tube.
NASA‘s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and compared the results with lava tubes on Earth. Their findings appeared in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Some 400km from where the Eagle famously landed, a collapsed lava tube created a wide depression. For years, no one was sure if the pit was a legitimate cave, or just a shallow hole. Nobody, that is, until the Italian team dug into the radar data from the 2010 Lunar Reconnaissance Mission and compared it with similar data from lava tubes on Earth.
The researchers used radar images taken in 2010 to find evidence of the cave connected to the pit. They estimate the initial part of the cave is at least 130 feet wide and tens of yards long or more, according to Marcia Dunn of the Associated Press (AP).
Trento in Italy, tells BBC News’ Georgina Rannard.
Studying the moon’s underground caves could give researchers a better understanding of how volcanism works, per the study. And by finding more pits, researchers could identify the best locations for setting up lunar bases shielded from cosmic radiation and the surface’s wide-ranging temperatures.
Rocks and other material inside these caves — unaltered by the harsh surface conditions over the eons — also can help scientists better understand how the moon evolved, especially involving its volcanic activity
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