Is the Moon Made from Swiss cheese?
February 12th 2011 14:13
Category: Cosmic Objects
Crater Image taken by LROC NAC image by NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
US President Barack Obama may have to rethink his decision to abandon plans to return to the Moon.
Images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Cameras (LROC) have revealed some interesting new caves on the Moon’s surface.
The LROC NAC acquired an angled view of the Marius Hills pit to reveal an overhang, with a pit below, which is about 65 meters in diameter.
The pits are not artificial or “man made” they seem to be associated with lava flows. As the lava moved just under the Moon’s surface it created a tunnel like structure. Some of the Moon’s surface crust collapsed to show a somewhat hole in the ground.
Lunar Pit
The LRO team says this pit is about 65 meters in diameter! Subsequent LROC passes over the Moon’s surface verifies this is actually a cavernous subsurface cave.
Last year, NASA'a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) went into a low orbit around the Moon and almost immediately returned results. It found the lost Soviet rover Lunokhod 1, which veered off course 40 years ago and was never heard since was finally found.
the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter may have confirmed a 4 decade old theory that scientists had held about the Moon, that it may have e a vast network of tunnel under the surface.
This would explain the early odd seismology reports taken from the Moon in the late 1960’s.
It just shows how little we know about the moon. In December last year, Japanese orbiter Kaguya spotted a huge pit in the middle of one of the Marius Hills rilles.
It was about 70m wide and dropped more than 90m to its floor.
Well the Moon is not made of Swiss cheese perhaps the analogy is well suited given the new revelations with the discovery of Sub surface Caverns on the Moon.
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Sorry, I just couldn't resist. LOL
Seriously, is there any chance that water might be found in some of those tunnels or caverns? That would be a great discovery! Maybe someday NASA will get back to the business of space (and lunar) exploration. During the next administration.
Comment by CarlCan
Astroearth
Camera Sense
Hi S.L.
Yes the moon is really holey....O
The likelihood of water being present on the Moon surface is slim as the daytime temperature are around Plus 107 degrees Centigrade.
Any water on the surface would evaporate, the bulk of the Moon’s water is in the Moon’s polar caps were the sunlight can’t reach.