July 27 () –
NASA-funded scientists Several wells have been discovered on the Moon that are always around 17 degrees Celsius, according to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft, as well as computer models.
These wells and caves they would be thermally stable sites for lunar exploration compared to areas on the Moon’s surface, which heat up to 127C during the day and cool to less than 173C at night.
The pits were first discovered on the Moon in 2009, and since then scientists have wondered if they lead to caves that could be explored or used as shelter. The wells or caves would also offer some protection against cosmic rays, solar radiation and micrometeorites.
“About 16 of the more than 200 pits are probably collapsed lava tubes.“explains Tyler Horvath, a doctoral student in planetary sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the new research, recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
“Moon pits are a fascinating feature on the lunar surfaceadds LRO project scientist Noah Petro of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.Knowing that they create a stable thermal environment helps us paint a picture of these unique lunar features and the prospect of one day exploring them.“, details.
Lava tubes, also found on Earth, form when molten lava flows under a cooled lava field or crusts over a lava river, leaving a long hollow tunnel. If the roof of a solidified lava tube collapses, a shaft opens up that can lead to the rest of the cave-like tube.
Two of the more prominent pits have visible overhangs that clearly lead to caves or voids and there is strong evidence that the overhang of another may also lead to a large cave.
“Humans evolved living in caves, and we could return to caves when we live on the Moonexplains David Paige, a co-author on the paper who runs the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment aboard LRO, which made the temperature measurements used in the study.
Horvath processed data from Diviner, a thermal camera, to find out if the temperature inside the wells diverged from that at the surface. Focusing on a roughly cylindrical depression about 100 meters deep about the length and width of a football field, in an area of the Moon known as Mare Tranquillitatis, Horvath and his colleagues used computer models to analyze the thermal properties of the rock. and lunar dust and record well temperatures over time.
The results revealed that temperatures within the permanently shadowed reaches of the well fluctuate only slightly during the lunar day, staying around 17°C. If a cave extends from the bottom of the pit, as images taken by LRO’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera suggest, they too would have this relatively stable temperature.
The team, which included UCLA planetary science professor David Paige and Paul Hayne of the University of Colorado Boulder, believe that shading is responsible for the constant temperature, which limits heat during the day and prevents the heat is radiated at night.
A day on the Moon lasts about 15 Earth days, during which the surface is constantly bombarded by sunlight and is often hot enough to boil water. The nights are brutally cold and also last about 15 Earth days.
This research was funded by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter project, Extended Mission 4. Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected data that has helped further our understanding of the Moon.
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