NASA Moon Cave Discovery

Overview

The NASA Moon Cave Discovery refers to reports that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed the existence of an underground cave on the moon under the Mare Tranquillitatis Pit that could potentially be used in the building of a base on the lunar surface for people to safely take shelter in. The news was reported in mid-July 2024 and became a subject of discussion on social media, along with memes, including some that suggest mouse-like creatures named Clangers (derived from the '60s children's TV show of the same name) live in the moon cave.

History

On July 15th, 2024, several media outlets, including Al Jazeera^[1] and BBC,^[2] reported that NASA confirmed the existence of an underground cave on the moon, reportedly near the site of Neil Armstrong's moon landing in 1969. The cave was found by an Italian team of scientists led by Lorenzo Bruzzone and Leonardo Carrer at the University of Trento, who used radar to penetrate a rocky plain known as the Mare Tranquillitatis.

The cave was reportedly caused by the "collapse of a lava tube" and is one of over 200 pits discovered on the moon. They estimated the cave to be about 40 meters wide. Reports suggest that the cave could be used in the building of a base on the moon, as it would protect from "cosmic rays and solar radiation as well as from micrometeorite strikes."

This is not the earliest report of the existence of pits on the moon or the first claim that moon caves could be used to house astronauts. However, it is the first confirmation of an underground cave on the moon extending from one of said pits.

For example, in October 2017, CBC^[3] reported on the evidence of lava tubes on the moon and the possibility of moon caves housing people in the future. This article shares an image of one of these pits at Mare Tranquillitatis, which is also being used in current reports about the confirmation of the cave on the moon (shown below).

Online Reactions

The news inspired discussions and memes on social media shortly after it made headlines. On July 15th, 2024, X^[4] user @Andydrewz posted a photoshop of the moon pit image with Clangers from the 1969 children's puppet TV show Clangers, a mouse-like species said to live on "a blue planet in space," in the pit, writing, "Newly discovered cave on Moon found to be already taken," garnering over 5,000 likes in two days (shown below).

On July 16th, X^[5] user @MarioNawfal shared news of the discovery, garnering over 6,100 likes in a day.

Also on July 16th, 2024, the Instagram^[6] and X^[7] meme account @destiny_thememe posted a meme about the discovery referencing the video game Destiny, captioning the meme "do NOT the moon," a reference to the "do not the cat" meme, garnering over 10,000 likes on the former and 5,000 likes on the latter in a day (shown below).

Search Interest

External References