Scientists have confirmed the presence of a cave on the Moon and believe there could be hundreds more. They think these caves could serve as future homes for astronauts. The confirmed cave is near the area where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in 1969.
The cave is accessible from an open pit in the Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility), making it an ideal spot for a future lunar base. This natural shelter would protect against the harsh lunar environment.
Leonardo Carrer, the study’s lead author, said, “The main advantage of caves is that they provide the main structural components of a possible human base without requiring complex construction.”
The latest research, published in Nature Astronomy under the title “Radar evidence of an accessible cave conduit on the Moon below the Mare Tranquillitatis pit,” marks a significant discovery for lunar exploration.
This international study, published on Monday (Jul 15), is the first to provide evidence of a substantial underground cave on the Moon. Researchers believe the cave is an empty lava tube. The study was partially funded by the Italian Space Agency and involved researchers from the University of Padua and La Venta Geographic Explorations APS, who contributed to geological analyses and modeling of the cave.
NASA’s lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LRO) radar data revealed that the Mare Tranquillitatis pit, the Moon’s deepest known pit, leads to a cave about 80 meters long and 45 meters wide, located 150 meters below the surface.
Lorenzo Bruzzone, a professor at the University of Trento, explained, “These caves have been theorized for over 50 years, but this is the first time we have demonstrated their existence.”
Bruzzone added, “In 2010, as part of NASA’s ongoing LRO mission, the Miniature Radio-Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument collected data that included a pit in Mare Tranquillitatis. Years later, we reanalyzed this data with advanced signal processing techniques we developed and discovered radar reflections from the pit area best explained by an underground cave conduit.”
This discovery offers the first direct evidence of an accessible lava tube beneath the Moon’s surface.
