For the first time, scientists have discovered a cave on the Moon. This cave, estimated to be at least 100 meters deep, is considered a promising location for establishing a permanent human base. Researchers suggest that this cave is one of potentially hundreds of hidden caves on the Moon, representing an “underground, undiscovered world.”

Countries are currently in a race to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon, but there are significant challenges to overcome, such as protecting astronauts from radiation, extreme temperatures, and space weather. Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut, commented to BBC News that the newly discovered cave could be a suitable location for a base and speculated that humans might be living in lunar pits within 20-30 years. However, she noted that the cave’s depth would require astronauts to use methods such as abseiling, jet packs, or lifts to enter and exit.

The cave was discovered by Lorenzo Bruzzone and Leonardo Carrer at the University of Trento in Italy. They used radar to explore a pit opening on a rocky plain known as the Mare Tranquillitatis, which is visible from Earth and is the landing site of Apollo 11 in 1969. The cave features a skylight on the Moon’s surface leading to vertical and overhanging walls, as well as a sloping floor that might extend further underground. This formation was created millions or billions of years ago by flowing lava, which formed tunnels through the rock. Prof. Carrer compared it to the volcanic caves in Lanzarote, Spain, which the researchers visited as part of their study.

“It’s really exciting. When you make these discoveries and look at these images, you realize you’re the first person in the history of humanity to see it,” said Prof. Carrer.

Once Profs. Bruzzone and Carrer understood the size of the cave, they recognized its potential as a suitable location for a lunar base. “After all, life on Earth began in caves, so it makes sense that humans could live inside them on the Moon,” Prof. Carrer noted.

Although the cave has not yet been fully explored, the researchers hope to use ground-penetrating radar, cameras, or even robots to map it. About 50 years ago, scientists first suspected there were caves on the Moon. In 2010, a camera on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission captured images of pits that scientists believed could be cave entrances. However, researchers were unsure of the depth of these caves or whether they had collapsed.

The work of Profs. Bruzzone and Carrer has provided some answers, though much remains to be learned about the cave’s full extent. “We have very good images of the surface—up to 25 cm of resolution—we can see the Apollo landing sites, but we know nothing about what lies below the surface. There are huge opportunities for discovery,” Francesco Sauro, Coordinator of the Topical Team Planetary Caves of the European Space Agency, told BBC News.

The research may also aid in the exploration of caves on Mars in the future. This could potentially lead to finding evidence of life on Mars, as any existing life would likely have been in caves protected from the planet’s harsh surface conditions.

While the Moon cave might be useful for human habitation, it also holds promise for answering fundamental questions about the Moon’s history and our solar system. The rocks inside the cave, shielded from space weather, could provide a pristine geological record dating back billions of years.

The research findings have been published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy.