Scientists find 200 'Goldilocks' zones on the moon where astronauts can survive
Lunar scientists think they’ve found the hottest spot on the Moon, as well as about 200 Goldilocks zones that are always close to San Francisco’s average temperature.
The moon has wild temperature fluctuations, with parts of month heats up to 260 degrees Fahrenheit (127 degrees Celsius) during the day and drops to minus 280 F (minus 173 C) at night. But the 200 newly analyzed shading moon holes are always 63 F (17 C), meaning they’re perfect for humans to shelter from extreme temperatures. They can also protect astronauts from the dangers of the solar wind, micrometeorites, and cosmic rays. Some of those holes may lead to equally warm caves.
These partially shady holes and dark caverns could be ideal for lunar bases, scientists say.
“Surviving on a lunar night is very difficult because it requires a lot of energy, but being in these holes and caves almost completely eliminates that requirement,” Tyler Horvath, a doctoral student in planetary science at the University of California, Los Angeles and lead author on the NASA-funded study published online on July 8 in the journal Geophysical Research Letter (opens in a new tab)to Live Science.
Related: How many space rocks hit the moon every year?
This is a revelation that has been made for more than a decade. The first hole on the lunar surface was discovered in 2009 by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) orbiter Kaguya (formerly SELENE, for the SELenological and ENGineering Explorer). However, this new work has been carried out using a thermal camera, the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment, on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) robot.
Of the 200 holes found, two to three had recesses leading into the cave, while 16 holes looked like “ceilings” for collapsed lava tubes. On Earth, lava tubes are hollow caverns found near the surface in volcanic areas — most notably Kazumura Cave in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and La Cueva del Viento on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
“As the lava flows, the top solidifies while the lava continues to flow underneath, in some places the lava actually evacuates completely and leaves the lava tube,” Horvath said. If the lava tube collapses, a hole is created that acts as a “sky” to the long cavity.
The same process occurred billions of years ago when a massive volcanic event on the moon created the famous dark lava field on the lunar surface called “mary,” which is Latin for sea.
“These holes were likely formed by small impacts that punched holes in the ceiling of the lava tube or seismic activity that weakened the ceiling,” Horvath said.
In the new study, researchers analyzed temperature in a cylindrical bore about 328 feet (100 meters) deep in Mare Tranquillitatis — the Sea of Tranquility — near the moon’s equator. The team’s findings reveal that while the floor of the pit is illuminated during lunar noon, it may be the hottest spot on the entire surface of our natural satellite, at around 300 F (149 C); meanwhile, the temperature inside the permanently shaded hole fluctuated only slightly from the temperature of the Earth-like hoodie.
The hole is relatively close to where two of NASA’s Apollo missions landed. “The Tranquillitatis hole is actually the same distance from the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 landing sites, about 375 kilometers. [233 miles] go,” Horvath said. “If we do end up going there, it will be amazing to see the end of the Apollo program book and how well it has been preserved.”
That’s a possibility. This study was originally to help inform tentative plans for Moon Diver Mission (opens in a new tab) proposed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2020, which will have explorers descending into the Tranquillitatis pit to explore existing caves. “This rover will be able to study the layers of lava flows in the hole walls that have been imaged by LRO, helping us better understand the history and evolution of earlier moons,” Horvath said. “There’s not much left to learn about these holes from orbit, but there are plenty of opportunities if we go to one head-on.”
Apollo 11’s “Tranquility Base” could still get a dungeon sequel.
Originally published in Live Science.
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