Search results
Philolaus is a lunar impact crater that is located in the northern part of the Moon 's near side. It lies within one crater diameter to the east-southeast of the flooded crater Anaximenes, and to the west of the smaller Anaxagoras. It overlies the older and heavily worn Philolaus C to the south.
Jan 16, 2018 · Philolaus is an extremely fresh crater, with rough, blocky surfaces and rayed ejecta. It is very young in lunar terms (probably much less than one billion years old) and thus, has had...
Jul 30, 2019 · NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images spot the newly discovered lava tube skylight candidates at Philolaus Crater near the moon's north pole.
- That’S The Pits
- Connective Roads?
- More Data Needed
- Maze of Corridors?
- Water Harvesting
- Vital Data
- Micro-Roving
Researchers have identified “pits” on the moon, which are likely lava-tube “skylights”—geological doorways to underground tunnels that were once filled with lava. If they do indeed provide access to lava tubes, skylights could be a game-changer for human lunar exploration, said NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green. Lava tubes are protected from the harsh...
“There are a number of things on the moon that are going to be surprises,” Green said. “We need to get in there,” he added, referring to lunar skylights. “We need to verify. Maybe there’s a lot of water in these skylights? We don’t know. We’re finding them all over the moon.” A lava-tube network would suggest protected corridors, free of temperatur...
We don’t have enough information yet to ascertain if skylights on the moon represent an interconnected underground roadway, said Pascal Lee, a planetary scientist at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute. He is also chairman of the Mars Institute and director of the NASA Haughton Mars Project at NASA’s Ames Research Center i...
Lee also said that while some lava tubes on Earth have smooth walls and floors, most have very rough surfaces and debris piles on their floors. “We don’t know how rough lava tubes on the moon might be, but the term underground roadway seems optimistic,” Lee said. “In any case, in my view, it’s not that pits on the moon would lead to a maze of under...
Most intriguing to Lee are candidate pits recently identified inside Philolaus Crater near the north pole of the moon. “They might be skylights associated with a network of lava tubes formed not in volcanic lava flows, but in an impact melt sheet, the temporary pool of molten rock that ponded inside Philolaus Crater following the large impact that ...
Meanwhile, researchers have begun assessing the viability of underground lunar habitats. Anahita Modiriasari, a postdoctoral researcher in Purdue University’s Lyles School of Civil Engineering, and her colleagues have been appraising lunar imagery, reconstructed into a 3D model to evaluate lava tubes as apotential habitat for humans on the moon. Th...
In another development, the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program recently awarded a Phase 3 contract to researchers developing robotic technologies to enable the exploration of lunar pits. The “Skylight” concept mission is led by William Whittaker of Carnegie Mellon University. The NIAC award will help Whittaker and his team flesh out w...
Jan 12, 2018 · Small pits in a large crater on the Moon's North Pole could be "skylights" leading down to an underground network of lava tubes – tubes holding hidden water on Earth's nearest neighbour, according to new research.
Jan 18, 2018 · The stunning new photos show multiple small pits in a large impact crater known as the Philolaus Crater, which is located near the north pole of the moon.
People also ask
Where is Philolaus crater located?
Are there lava tubes in Philolaus crater?
Is there a candidate pit in Philolaus crater?
Why are there skylights in Philolaus crater?
A relatively recent young (1.1 billion years old) crater, Philolaus is around 70 km wide and located near the lunar north pole and north of Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold).
