Scientists have confirmed the existence of an underground tunnel-like phenomenon near Apollo 11’s landing site on the moon, ending nearly 50 years of speculation about underground caves.
The discovery, led by researchers from the University of Trento in Italy, identified a lava tube cave beneath the Mare Tranquillitatis, or “Sea of Tranquility,” where astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first set foot in 1969.
This important finding, published in Nature Astronomy, was made using data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The tunnel-like feature offers new insights into the moon’s geological composition and provides potential shelter for astronauts on future missions.
Lorenzo Bruzzone, a professor at the University of Trento, emphasized the importance of this discovery, noting that the existence of such underground features had been theorized for more than half a century but never confirmed until now.
The team re-examined data from the miniature radio frequency instrument (Mini-RF) on board the LRO, originally acquired in 2010, which included radar reflections from a well in Mare Tranquillitatis.
Leonardo Carrer, another researcher from the University of Trento, explained that the team was able to model part of the pipe and concluded that it is most likely an empty lava tube.
Such features could serve as ideal shelters for astronauts, providing protection from extreme temperatures, cosmic rays, solar radiation and meteorite impacts.
The moon’s surface temperature can reach 127°C on the sunlit side and drop to -173°C on the dark side. Lava tube caves could provide astronauts with a stable environment and protect them from these harsh conditions.
In addition, these caves would provide protection from radiation, which is up to 150 times more intense on the moon than on Earth, and from meteorite impacts, which have created the moon’s characteristic craters.
Wes Patterson, principal investigator of the Mini-RF at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said the team’s findings demonstrate “how radar data from the moon can be used in new ways to answer fundamental questions for science and research, and how crucial these are.” is to continue collecting remotely sensed data from the moon.”
“This includes the current LRO mission and hopefully future orbiter missions,” Patterson said.
The discovery has been published in a new study“Radar evidence of an accessible lunar cave pipe beneath the Mare Tranquillitatis pit,” in Nature Astronomy.
