Our possible refuge on the Moon
Our possible refuge on the Moon
There are more than 200 wells or holes on the moon, some may be simple wells, but it is believed that many are openings to networks of underground tunnels, these tunnels are believed to be of natural origin as a result of volcanic activity, they would be lava tubes. , its creation is easy to explain.
When a volcanic eruption occurs, the surface lava cools much before that which is in the interior. When the surface lava cools, it creates a rocky cover that protects the liquid lava that continues to flow below and this, which flows below, forms a underground river of lava, as the flow of that river is reduced, a vacuum is created which is in the end what forms the lava tunnel.
This is because there are also lava tunnels on Earth, the difference is that those on the moon are very very old, it is believed that most were formed about 3,500 million years ago, those on Earth usually have a few at most. millions of years, due to erosion, earthquakes and the movement of tectonic plates that end up destroying them and creating others; But none of that exists on the moon today, which is why they can persist for such a long time.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://images.playground.com/6b04bce881354da584f212439ecb1064.jpeg)
Another characteristic of lunar tunnels is that they can be enormous, colossal, gigantic and I am not falling short, nor am I exaggerating,
In 2016, a study was published as a result of gravimetric observations carried out by the two waves of NASA's Gray mission, whose mission, whose objective was to create a high-quality map of the gravitational field of the moon, to determine its interior structure, according to the data is not only that there are long lunar tunnels, it is that they could be up to 1 km wide.
These scientists calculated that under certain special conditions and at a much deeper depth, about 500 meters or more deep, there could be lava tubes up to 5 km wide and that they would be perfectly stable, imagine being in a cavern 5 km wide. , it would be like being in a small world, in a small inner world.
It is believed that this is possible because they were originally created at a time when much of the moon was very active volcanically, there were lakes and rivers of lava, the current lunar seas are a product of that time, after the moon cooled, the crust solidified and since the moon lacked erosion and movement of tectonic plates, all those tunnel structures were frozen in time. The low gravity of the moon is also an important factor, which is six times less than on Earth, however, a Rock is just as resistant on the moon as it is on Earth, but by weighing less, wider cavities and larger structures can be formed.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://images.playground.com/668a7ff4e967477e8e8b8a978c309a5b.jpeg)
These lunar tunnels offer enormous advantages for creating human habitats, to begin with because inside one of these tunnels we would be protected from cosmic radiation, which is 150 times more powerful on the moon than what we receive on the surface of the Earth, since the The moon lacks a protective magnetic field and we would also be protected from micrometeorite showers.
When we talk about shooting stars here on Earth they are a beautiful spectacle but on the moon they are a mortal danger, since the moon does not have an atmosphere that can disintegrate these small meteors, so these small objects sometimes the size of a grain of sand hit the surface at an atrocious speed or one that size the size of a grain of sand or a grain of rice has much more kinetic energy than a bullet.
If it hits an astronaut it would pass through him and kill him, and of course let's forget about those images of lunar bases with glass greenhouses, they are impossible.
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