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Craters are a familiar sight on the lunar surface and indeed on many of the rocky planets in the Solar System. There are other circular features that are picked up on images from orbiters but these pits are thought to be the collapsed roofs of lava tubes. A team of researchers have mapped one of these tubes using radar reflection and created the first 3D map of the tube’s entrance. Places like these could make ideal places to setup research stations, protected from the harsh environment of an alien world. 

Lava tubes have been hotly debated for the last 50 years. They are the result of ancient volcanic activity and develop when the surface of a lava flow cools and hardens. Below this, the molten lava continues to move and eventually drains away leaving behind a hollow tunnel. Exploring these tunnels can mean we can learn more about the geological history of the Moon from the preserved records in the rocks. 

The lava tubes have been the subject of analysis by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) which began its journey in 2009. It’s purpose was to gather information about the Moon’s surface and environment and to that end has a plethora of scientific equipment. LRO has been mapping the lunar surface using high resolution imagery capturing temperature, radiation levels and water ice deposits. All with a view to identifying potential landing sites for future missions.

Artist’s rendering of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in orbit. Credit: ASU/LROC

A team of scientists from around the world have been working together to make a breakthrough in the quest to understand these tubes. The research was led by the University of Trento in Italy and the results published in Nature Astronomy. They have identified the first, confirmed tunnel just under the surface of the Moon that seems to be an empty lava tube. Until now, their existence was just a theory, now they are a reality. 

The discovery would not have been possible without the LRO and its Miniature Radio-Frequency instrument. In 2010 it surveyed Mare Tranquilitatis – location for Apollo 11’s historic lunar landing in 1969 – capturing data which included the region around a pit. As part of this new research the data was reanalysed with modern complex signal processing techniques. The analysis revealed previously unidentified radar reflections that can best be explained by an underground cave or tunnel. Excitingly perhaps is that this represents an underground tunnel on the surface of the Moon but it is an accessible tunnel too.

Buzz Aldrin Gazes at Tranquility Base during the Apollo 11 moonwalk in an image taken by Neil Armstrong. Credit: NASA

The discovery highlights the importance of continued analysis of historical data, even from decades ago for hidden information that modern techniques can reveal. It also highlights the importance of further remote sensing and lunar exploration from orbit to identify more lava tubes as potential safe havens for lunar explorers. 

Travellers to the Moon can experience temperatures on the illuminated side of 127 degrees down to -173 degrees on the night time side. Radiation from the Sun can rocket – pardon the pun – to 150 times more powerful than here on Earth and that’s not even considering the threat of meteorite impacts. We are protected from thousands of tonnes of the stuff thanks to the atmosphere but there is no protective shield on the Moon. If we build structures on the surface of the Moon then they must be built to withstand such a hostile environment but look to lava tubes and many of the problems naturally go away making it a far safer and cheaper prospect to establish a lunar presence. 

Source : Existence of lunar lava tube cave demonstrated

The post The Entrance of a Lunar Lava Tube Mapped from Space appeared first on Universe Today.

The weirdest, creepiest, funniest, and just plain strange stories from the era of crewed space flight.

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For years as an award-winning war reporter, Sebastian Junger traveled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk. And yet the closest he ever came to death was the summer of 2020 while spending a quiet afternoon at the New England home he shared with his wife and two young children. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Once there, he began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his dead father, inviting Junger to join him. “It’s okay,” his father said. “There’s nothing to be scared of. I’ll take care of you.” That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day when he was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived.

This experience spurred Junger—a confirmed atheist raised by his physicist father to respect the empirical—to undertake a scientific, philosophical, and deeply personal examination of mortality and what happens after we die. How do we begin to process the brutal fact that any of us might perish unexpectedly on what begins as an ordinary day? How do we grapple with phenomena that science may be unable to explain? And what happens to a person, emotionally and spiritually, when forced to reckon with such existential questions?

In My Time of Dying is part medical drama, part searing autobiography, and part rational inquiry into the ultimate unknowable mystery.

Sebastian Junger is The New York Times bestselling author of Tribe, War, Freedom, A Death in Belmont, Fire, and The Perfect Storm, and codirector of the documentary film Restrepo, which was nominated for an Academy Award. He is also the winner of a Peabody Award and the National Magazine Award for Reporting. Here is how a Wall Street Journal reviewer described him:

Sebastian Junger has lived multiple lives and almost died in many of them. There was his accident while working for a tree-felling company that inspired him to research a book on dangerous jobs, which ultimately became The Perfect Storm (1997). There was the time he almost drowned while surfing. Then there was his work as an embedded journalist in Afghanistan, where machine-gun fire missed him by inches. Later, there was the assignment he did not take, to war-torn Libya, which claimed the life of his frequent collaborator and close friend, the British photographer Tim Hetherington.

His new book is In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face-to-Face with the Idea of an Afterlife, a book-length memento mori: remember, you are going to die.

Shermer and Junger discuss:

• how he became a professional writer and journalist
• his religious background and current beliefs even after his near-death experience
• what happened to him and how it changed his life
• NDEs and OBEs
• how the brain works under hallucinations
• consciousness and altered states of consciousness
• sensed presence effect
• sleep paralysis
• why there is no “proof” of an afterlife
• what it would be like to live forever
• what belief in life after death does for people
• empirical truths vs. mythic truths
• longevity and how to live longer.

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support by making a $5 or $10 monthly donation.

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Large language models may pass medical exams with flying colors but using them for diagnoses would currently be grossly negligent. Medical chatbots make hasty diagnoses, do not adhere to guidelines, and would put patients' lives at risk. A team has systematically investigated whether this form of artificial intelligence (AI) would be suitable for everyday clinical practice. Despite the current shortcomings, the researchers see potential in the technology. They have published a method that can be used to test the reliability of future medical chatbots.

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Aluminum scandium nitride thin films could pave the way for the next generation of ferroelectric memory devices, according to a new study. Compared to existing ferroelectric materials, these films maintain their ferroelectric properties and crystal structure even after heat treatment at temperatures up to 600 C in both hydrogen and argon atmospheres. This high stability makes them ideal for high-temperature manufacturing processes under the H2-included atmosphere used in fabricating advanced memory devices.

Aluminum scandium nitride thin films could pave the way for the next generation of ferroelectric memory devices, according to a new study. Compared to existing ferroelectric materials, these films maintain their ferroelectric properties and crystal structure even after heat treatment at temperatures up to 600 C in both hydrogen and argon atmospheres. This high stability makes them ideal for high-temperature manufacturing processes under the H2-included atmosphere used in fabricating advanced memory devices.