Official News page 4

REAL LIFE NEWS: UNDERGROUND TUNNELS ON MOON

by Hazed

Aliens once lived on the moon and dug underground tunnels. No, wait, the tunnels were made by giant spaceworms. Or maybe Elvis dug the tunnels after faking his death...

Actually, the explanation is not quite as exotic as aliens, spaceworms or Elvis. Scientists studying the results from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) have found evidence of the tunnels which they think are lava tubes, not unlike those on Earth. A lava tube is a tunnel in solid surrounding rock along which at some point liquid lava has flowed. When the lava cools and solidifies, it often leaves an open space above its surface, forming a tunnel.

Sometimes the roof of the tunnel collapses, forming a pit crater. If the collapse happens while the lava is still flowing, the pit crater will have a smooth bottom, but if it happens once the lava has hardened then the bottom of the crater will be a big pile of rubble.

NASA's LRO was put into a very low Moon orbit so it could map it in great detail. Now the scientists who are analyzing the results believe they have found pit craters, and this indicates there may also be underground lava tube tunnels.

They expect to confirm the existence of the tunnels by taking pictures from the LRO at different angles, and with the Sun positioned in the sky above so that they could spot the overhangs indicating whether the tunnels are still open and accessible.

Maybe if we do send robot probes to the moon, they could investigate the tunnels, and find out if they are the same as the lava tubes on Earth. Or if there's evidence of aliens, spaceworms or Elvis!

You can see some pictures of possible moon pit craters here.

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