We all know what’s in that hole
A hole on the Moon just turned out to be the front door to a 50 km tunnel.
Japan’s Kaguya orbiter first spotted it. A pit about 50 metres wide and 50 metres deep, sitting in the Marius Hills on the Moon’s near side.
Then JAXA pointed the probe’s radar underground. The echoes came back with something huge: a lava tube roughly 100 metres wide, running about 50 km, and still intact. No collapse.
Scientists think it was carved by volcanic activity around 3.5 billion years ago. There may even be ice or water locked in the rocks inside.
That’s why JAXA thinks it could become a lunar base. Shelter from radiation, micrometeorites and brutal temperature swings, all built in.
Source: JAXA / ISAS, Geophysical Research Letters