Cave of Wonder: Scientists discover moon cave that could support human life
In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists have unveiled the existence of a cave on the Moon for the very first time.
Measuring over 100 meters deep, experts believe it could provide an ideal setting for humans to establish a permanent base.
This lunar cave represents just one of potentially many more hidden caves, forming an underground world yet to be fully explored, as highlighted by the researchers.
With nations racing to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon, the safeguarding of astronauts against radiation, extreme temperatures, and space weather remains a critical challenge.
Helen Sharman, the pioneering British astronaut who ventured into space, expressed excitement over the potential base site within the newly-found cave. She speculated that humans could be inhabiting these lunar habitats within the next 20 to 30 years.
However, due to its substantial depth, Sharman noted that astronauts might need to descend into the cave using abseiling techniques and rely on jet packs or lifts for their ascent.
The discovery of the cave was made by Lorenzo Bruzzone and Leonardo Carrer from the University of Trento in Italy, who utilized radar technology to explore the entrance of the pit situated in the Mare Tranquillitatis rocky plain.
This pit, which is visible from Earth and served as the landing site for Apollo 11 in 1969, opens up possibilities for future human missions and space exploration.
The cave has a skylight on the Moon’s surface, leading down to vertical and overhanging walls, and a sloping floor that might extend further underground.
It was made millions or billions of years ago when lava flowed on the Moon, creating a tunnel through the rock.
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The closest equivalent on Earth would be the volcanic caves in Lanzarote, Spain, Prof Carrer explains, adding that the researchers visited those caves as part of their work.
“It’s really exciting. When you make these discoveries and you look at these images, you realise you’re the first person in the history of humanity to see it,” Prof Carrer said.
Once Prof Bruzzone and Prof Carrer understood how big the cave was, they realised it could be a good spot for a lunar base.
“After all, life on Earth began in caves, so it makes sense that humans could live inside them on the Moon,” says Prof Carrer.
The cave has yet to be fully explored, but the researchers hope that ground-penetrating radar, cameras or even robots could be used to map it.
Scientists first realised there were probably caves on the Moon around 50 years ago. Then in 2010 a camera on a mission called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took pictures of pits that scientists thought could be cave entrances.
But researchers did not know how deep the caves might be, or if they would have collapsed.
Prof Bruzzone and Prof Carrer’s work has now answered that question, although there is much more to be done to understand the full scale of the cave.
“We have very good images of the surface – up to 25cm of resolution – we can see the Apollo landing sites – but we know nothing about what lies below the surface. There are huge opportunities for discovery,” Francesco Sauro, Coordinator of the Topical Team Planetary Caves of the European Space Agency, told BBC News.
The research may also help us explore caves on Mars in the future, he says.
That could open the door to finding evidence of life on Mars, because if it did exist, it would almost certainly have been inside caves protected from the elements on the planet’s surface.
The Moon cave might be useful to humans, but the scientists also stress that it could help answer fundamental questions about the history of the Moon, and even our solar system.
The rocks inside the cave will not be as damaged or eroded by space weather, so they can provide an extensive geological record going back billions of years.
The research is published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy.
