Fifty-kilometre-long cave
discovered on the moon
discovered on the moon
Summary:
The cavity has
been discovered thanks to the radar of the Selene probe, and is a tunnel
created by lava flows in a remote past, when the Moon still had active
volcanoes, so it is at the bottom of a crater. It could be used to house a
future colony of astronauts because it is a hundred meters wide and eighty
meters deep, and could contain water.
Link:
Publication
date:
20/10/2017
Scientific
field:
Astronomy.
Glossary:
Probe: an unmanned
exploratory spacecraft designed to transmit information about its environment.
Lava flow: liquid or solidified lava which has erupted from a
volcano.
Analysis comment:
This article talks
about the discovery of a big cave in the moon, and why it is relevant.
Well, according to the agency JAXA, at the equator of
the Moon the temperature ranges from over 100 degrees positive at noon to 170
negatives at midnight, making it difficult to install a base on the surface. But
in the interior of the cave the average temperature must be around 35 below
zero, and a colony could be viable.
Furthermore, it is thought that there is frozen water
on the cave, so it could be used to drink, obtain oxygen or produce fuel.
Thanks to these conditions, astronauts could now go to
the moon and stay there for a while because they would be protected from space
radiation, the bombardment of micrometeorites and the high and low
temperatures, and it would be easy for them to obtain water. So, in my opinion,
this discovery is very important because it will let us know more about the
moon and the space in general.
Finally, the article says that some countries like
Russia and the USA have plans to send astronauts to the moon in a future, but funding
is lacking. I really hope this project will be carried out one day, because I
think it would allow us to make a big progress.
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