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Abuja, Nigeria – An underground cave has been confirmed on the moon by an Italian-led team of scientists, located not far from where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed 55 years ago. This discovery, announced on Monday, suggests there may be hundreds more caves that could potentially house future astronauts.
The team revealed evidence of a sizable cave accessible from the deepest known pit on the moon, situated in the Sea of Tranquility, approximately 400 km (250 miles) from Apollo 11’s landing site. The pit, like over 200 others identified on the moon, is believed to have formed from the collapse of a lava tube.
“Lunar caves have remained a mystery for over 50 years. So it was exciting to be able to finally prove the existence,” said Leonardo Carrer and Lorenzo Bruzzone of the University of Trento in an email to The Associated Press.
Published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the researchers explained that they used radar measurements from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and compared these with lava tubes on Earth. The radar data indicated only the initial part of the underground cavity, which they estimate to be at least 40 meters (130 feet) wide and several meters long, possibly more.
The majority of these pits appear to be in the moon’s ancient lava plains, with potential additional pits at the moon’s south pole, where NASA plans to land astronauts later this decade. The permanently shadowed craters at the south pole are believed to contain frozen water that could be used for drinking water and rocket fuel.
During NASA’s Apollo program, 12 astronauts landed on the moon, starting with Armstrong and Aldrin on July 20, 1969. This latest discovery hints at the existence of potentially hundreds of pits and thousands of lava tubes on the moon, which could serve as natural shelters for astronauts, offering protection from cosmic rays, solar radiation, and micrometeorite strikes.
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