Hole in the Moon

[PPI Karl]

While taking HiRes images of the Moon, the Japanese SELENE spacecraft discovered a well and true hole, a ancient collapsed lava tube, in the Marius Hills region (on the near side).  This thing is actually pretty big, deep as a skyscraper and wide as a city block.  The discovery has generated a lot of excitement at the prospect of a sheltered underground colony, particularly after speculation that other connected caverns and tubes may be found throughout the region. 

Once again, H.G. Wells is eerily prophetic--enough to make me think he might have been some sort of time traveler.  Anyone recall his 1901 novel First Men In the Moon?  Nathan H. Juran brilliantly adapted it into a film in 1964 (which I have on <gulp> laser disc  ::|).  Wells's story is about a crazy scientist, Dr. Cavor, who discovers and anti-grav substance he dubs Cavorite and turns it into a paint that coats a space ship that takes him, his bankrupt young friend, and Cavor's young niece (yes, the token female again), not just to the moon, but in it:  it crashes through the crust and into a sublunar system of caves and lava tubes populated by an advanced hive civilization of "Selenites."  The 1964 film is better than what you might expect for its time--it's not one of those typical B-rated, Saturday matinee vehicles for Doug McClure.  I highly recommend it.  However, the point is that I never expected it to be as potentially factual as it seems!  I imagined human civilizations tunneling the Moon, but never actually discovering a pre-existing system of tunnels and caves.  Along with the recent discovery that water is ubiquitous on the Moon (though, I don't quite know how exaggerated these claims are), this prospect of underground spaces makes colonization of the Moon a strong possibility now . . . but in someone else's lifetime, not mine.  (

Now I've got that B-52's song stuck in my head--the one with the lyric, "There's a moon in the sky, and it's called 'The Moon.'"  Meanwhile, here's an article on Space.com about "the hole":  http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091231-moon-hole-lava-tube.html

[PPI Jason]

Is that really a hole? I'm not one to question NASA, but it sure looks to me like someone just "photoshoped" in a black dot.

[PPI Tim]

Don't you know anything. Every moon you see has a hole.

[Damian]

Tim, you just made me snot-rocket on my keyboard.  Thanks for that!

[Gary]

Wow Tim..... Wow!   

[PPI Tracy]

Moooooooooooon Riverrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......