Peering into lunar skylights
Event image. The Marius Hills opening reveals a steep-walled interruption in volcanic terrain.
NASA/JPL image-use policy · credited mission imagery, resized to WebP
· Original image source · Image licenceA dark opening raises a very tangible exploration question.
- World
- Moon
- Case date or period
- Images · 2010–2017 · research through 2024
Look closer
The Marius Hills pit lies in volcanic terrain. The wider view supplies the setting; the close image reveals steep walls and an opening whose interior changes with illumination.
Follow the evidence
The companion photographs include separate pits at Mare Tranquillitatis and Mare Ingenii. They are comparisons rather than alternate views of Marius Hills. A visible overhang can tell us about an opening without mapping an unseen cave.
Radar reaches beyond a photographed opening
The 2024 study led by Leonardo Carrer and Lorenzo Bruzzone re-examined Mini-RF radar observations collected in 2010 at Mare Tranquillitatis. NASA’s mission account reports evidence for a passage extending more than sixty metres from the pit’s base. This concerns the comparison pit, not Marius Hills. Radar interpretation adds evidence of hidden space beyond optical images, but does not map a complete underground network or establish how far the passage ultimately continues.
A sheltered temperature is a modelled result
Tyler Horvath and colleagues combined Diviner thermal observations with models of rock and dust at the Tranquillitatis pit. They estimated that permanently shaded areas remain near seventeen degrees Celsius through the lunar day, with an overhang limiting heating and cooling. An adjoining cave could share that environment if present. This is a remote-sensing and modelling result, not a thermometer placed underground or a demonstration that a cave is ready for habitation.
Sources & further reading
- Marius Hills Pit -- Lava Tube Skylight? — NASA Image and Video Library / JPL
- Marius Hills Constellation Region of Interest — NASA Image and Video Library / JPL
- Peeking Into Lunar Pits — NASA Image and Video Library / GSFC
- LROC Pits Atlas: Marius Hills — LROC / Arizona State University
- Depths of Mare Ingenii — NASA Image and Video Library / JPL
- New Evidence Adds to Findings Hinting at Network of Caves on Moon — NASA / LRO; Carrer and Bruzzone study
- NASA’s LRO Finds Lunar Pits Harbor Comfortable Temperatures — NASA / Diviner; Horvath, Hayne and Paige