Mysterious Moon cave entrances could unlock lunar secrets
Scientists report the discovery of mysterious "entrance doors" to a massive cave on the Moon. These could help better understand the volcanic processes occurring on the Silver Globe.
6:07 PM EDT, August 9, 2024
"We found a sort of front door to enter the subsurface," said Leonardo Carrer, the study's lead author from the University of Trento in Italy. Carrer notes that access to the Moon's interior is a promising site for future robotic explorations. Simultaneously, these "doors" on the Moon are expected to provide a wealth of information about the volcanism of the Silver Globe.
"Doors" to the Moon's interior
Scientists have long suspected that the Moon is replete with volcanic formations, including lava tunnels. Similar formations are also found on Earth. Over 200 pits have been identified on the Moon, where rocks and regolith have collapsed to unknown depths.
Research conducted by Leonardo Carrer indicates that one of these pits in the Mare Tranquillitatis region has collapsed, forming an underground cave channel accessible from the Moon's surface.
Caves on the Silver Globe, such as these surface collapses, are valuable evidence confirming the existence of lava tunnels. These are the most compelling formations alongside lunar pits and elliptical craters. Therefore, Carrer and his team decided to closely investigate what the newly discovered "doors" on the Moon might be hiding.
Along with Lorenzo Bruzzone, Carrer attempted to map the hidden cave using orbital synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instruments, reports Live Science. The SAR data enabled scientists to create three-dimensional reconstructions of two Earth caves near their entrances.
It reaches a depth of up to 575 feet
"We could detect from this pit…a reflection that clearly proved an opening on the bottom and the entrance of a cave, which probably is a part of a lava tube," explains Bruzzone. Using a special computer model, it was determined that the entrance to the Moon is at least 148 feet wide and reaches a depth of 443 to 575 feet beneath the surface.
"[This] analysis certainly indicates that there’s a passage that goes deeper than we’ve been able to see with visible-wavelength images," says Robert Wagner, another scientist participating in the study from Arizona State University in Tempe. The next step for the scientists is to send a mission to the new "doors" on the Moon to study the cave's interior directly.
As reported by Live Science, Carrer and Bruzzone are excited about uncovering the Moon's geological history. They believe that the cave could significantly aid in this effort. Inside the cave, on rocks shielded from erosion and changes caused by the solar wind, they might find crucial information for their scientific work.
"Studying the rocks there, since they are pristine rocks not altered by the harsh surface, could give a lot of insight about the lunar volcanism and the history of volcanism on the Moon," believes Carrer. The scientist also does not rule out uncovering an intact lava tube where lunar magma once flowed and settled.
