A hole was found on the Earth's satellite that could fit a skyscraper
A group of astronomers from Italy and the USA discovered a cave on the Moon that could fit a skyscraper 150 meters high. Foreign scientists immediately considered it suitable for building a base for the first lunar explorers, but their Russian colleague doubted the correctness of this choice.
An artistic depiction of a lunar pit on the Sea of Tranquility, hiding an accessible cave channel tens of meters long.
It turns out that the first people walked on the moon 300 kilometers from this cave – Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they landed in the so-called Sea of Tranquillitatis.
Sea of Tranquility – One of the largest depressions that we can see every night on the visible side of the Moon is an ancient lava valley. Lunar orbiters such as NASA's LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) first discovered pits on it and other lava valleys more than a decade ago. Since that time, about 200 lunar holes have been discovered, which, according to one version, are the result of the volcanic activity of the satellite.
Recently, a group of researchers from the Italian universities in Trento and Padua, as well as from the American University. Johns Hopkins, Arizona State University and the aerospace company specializing in radar sensing Capella Space, using LRO images, carried out mathematical modeling https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02302 and discovered the largest cave in the Sea of Tranquility, the entrance to which opens directly from the surface of the quarry.
According to lunar reconnaissance radar data, the deepest of all known depressions on the Moon – The Sea of Tranquility leads to a cave 45 meters wide, up to 80 meters long, located approximately 150 meters below the surface.
As one of the researchers told The Guardian newspaper – Lorenzo Bruzzone of the University of Trento, the cave “probably represents an empty lava tube”, the bottom of which is strewn with 10-meter boulders.
In the article, scientists mathematically describe a hole 100 meters wide and conclude that the entrance to it is open, and it itself is limited by vertical or overhanging walls. If you go down into it, you can feel under your feet a sloping floor and an underground chamber extending tens of meters to the west.
Bruzzone and his colleague Leonardo Carrer suggested that such objects could serve as habitats for future explorers, since they have a relatively stable temperature and provide a natural shelter from the harsh conditions of the lunar environment: from harmful cosmic rays, solar radiation, extreme temperature changes and micrometeorites. Caves may also contain water ice – a resource that will be necessary for long-term lunar missions and colonization of the Moon.
Many lunar pits are “windows” of caves. < /span>
In addition to thinking about future habitable bases on the Moon, the pits of the Sea of Tranquility are of interest to researchers with from the point of view of studying the mysteries of the formation of the earth's satellite and its volcanic history.
At the same time, another researcher – Robert Wagner of Arizona State University said that while the cave is attractive, entering it would be problematic for lunar explorers. “To get into this hole you have to go down 125 meters before you reach the bottom,” – he says. In addition, according to him, the edge of the cave is quite loose, and any movement “could lead to small avalanches on everyone below.”
Some space agencies are already asking how to assess the stability of caves and, if possible, strengthen their walls and ceilings.
– Volcanism on the Moon was thought to have ceased about one billion years ago. Today there are really no active volcanoes there, but we see their traces in just such frozen lava tubes.
The probable discovery of the largest such tube was quite expected. The lava flow solidified from above because heat was radiated, and from below the same heat was lost into the underlying material. There is a void left in the center — lava tube. And I am pleased that evidence has been obtained of the existence of such pipes in the area of the famous depression of the Sea of Tranquility.
– I would not build a base there, because collapses of the “ceiling” are possible. lava tubes. Actually, the failure in the Sea of Tranquility is the result of the collapse of the “ceiling”. lava tube. The base must be built on the surface of the Moon, covering the buildings with a layer of lunar soil several meters thick.