The research team, led by planetary scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has discovered shady locations within pits on the Moon that always hover around a comfortable 63°F (17°C).
The pits, and caves to which they may lead, would make safer, more thermally stable base camps for lunar exploration and long-term habitation than the rest of the Moon’s surface, which heats up to 260°F (127°C) during the day and drops to 280°F below zero (-173°C) at night.
Pits were first discovered on the Moon in 2009 and since then scientists have wondered if they led to caves that could be explored or used as shelters. About 16 of the more than 200 pits are probably collapsed lava tubes, said Tyler Horvath, a UCLA doctoral student in planetary science, who led the new research. Two of the most prominent pits have visible overhangs that clearly lead to some sort of cave or void, and there is strong evidence that another cave’s overhang may also...