Discovering a 50 Km Long Underground Cave, 100 Meters Wide

In the Moon's Marius Hill area, Japanese scientists have discovered an underground cave stretching 50 km and 100 meters wide. This may be the right place for us to build a space base for missions to explore the Moon and protect astronauts from radiation and cosmic rays on the surface when we set foot on this planet.

Key Facts About Explore the Moon

Using a radar system to scan underground structures beneath the Moon's surface, SELENE orbit (also known as Kaguya) of the Japan Aerospace Research and Development Agency (JAXA) discovered this cave.

Marius Hill Area, which is defined as having a cave deep below.(Image: NASA Goddard.)

According to the collected data, this cave is made up of a very solid hard rock structure. It can even be wider and deeper, the widest place can reach 200 meters. Deep in the rock layers can contain frozen or icy water that can easily turn into fuel.

According to estimates by American scientists, the space inside this lake is very large, even accommodating several Philadelphia cities.

Why Explore the Moon Matters

Note the terrain locations on the Moon. Discovery of underground caves, hills of Marius and landing points of Apollo missions in the past.(Image: NASA. Data: NASA, JAXA.)

According to JAXA, 3.5 billion years ago, this space is a molten lava lake when operating volcanoes on the Moon.

The moon does not have a thick atmosphere like Earth, during the day the temperature here reaches 107 degrees Celsius, down to -153 degrees Celsius at night and is subjected to a lot of radiation from the universe. This space area will be the ideal place to protect the crew from harsh conditions on the surface.

Estimate the relative size of newly discovered caves and the city of Philadelphia in the United States.(Graphics: David Blair / Purdue University.)

In the future, this cave will be a close target for humankind's next Moon exploration missions since the last Apollo mission to bring humans to the Moon ended half a century ago.

Through this finding, JAXA said it will send people to the Moon around 2030.