It's been more than 50 years since a human has been on the surface of the moon. Scientists have floated the idea of reviving manned moon missions in recent years, and a new discovery by lunar researchers could make a permanent human presence on the moon a much more feasible reality.
An Italian-led team of scientists outlined a possible revolutionary find on the moon's surface in research published July 15 in the Nature Astronomy journal. They found evidence of a sizable cave accessible from the deepest known point on the moon in the Mare Tranquillitatis, or Sea of Tranquility. The basalt basin stretches more than 500 miles across, and was the location where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin famously stepped onto the moon's surface as part of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
The team surmised that the cave was created by the collapse of a lava tube. To reach their conclusions, the researchers analyzed radar measurements from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and compared the results with lava tubes on Earth. The cave that the researchers identified is located approximately 250 miles from Apollo 11's landing site and is estimated to be at least 130 feet wide and several dozen yards long.
This cave is just one of possibly hundreds of pits on the moon and thousands of lava tubes. It could change how humans interact with the moon in the coming decades, as caves such as this one can function as a natural shelter for astronauts that protects them from cosmic rays, solar radiation, and micrometeorite strikes. Still, the team acknowledged that creating a more permanent place for astronauts to live would be costly, time-consuming, and environmentally challenging.
"Lunar caves have remained a mystery for over 50 years, so it was exciting to be able to finally prove the existence [of one]," study authors Leonardo Carrer and Lorenzo Bruzzone told The Associated Press of the discovery.
It's certainly an exciting find, but don't start making plans to move to a moon colony just yet.
