Cave on the moon
Not far from the place where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed 55 years ago, scientists confirm the existence of a cave on the moon, where future astronauts could shelter.
An Italian-led team confirmed, on Monday, the existence of evidence of a large cave accessible from the deepest known crater on the Moon, located in the Sea of Tranquility, only 400 kilometers from the Apollo 11 landing site.
The crater was formed by the collapse of a lava tube, as is the case with more than 200 other craters discovered there.
The researchers analyzed radar measurements made by NASA's Reconnaissance Orbiter and compared the results to lava tubes on Earth. Their results were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
The results indicate that there may be hundreds of craters on the Moon and thousands of lava tubes, which could serve as natural shelters for astronauts, protecting them from cosmic rays and solar radiation as well as from small meteorite strikes.
"Lunar caves have remained a mystery for more than 50 years. So it was exciting to finally be able to prove their existence," Leonardo Carrer and Lorenzo Brusoni of the University of Trento said in an email.
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