Fascinating stuff. Especially so are the rilles and pits — the pits in particular are a new phenomenon to me, and very exciting. They almost certainly indicate lava tubes, and quite large ones; the pit in Mare Ingenii is 130 m across! The lava tube it's exposing must be even larger. And this in an area with very few visible rilles, suggesting that the rest of this big lava tub is intact. Sounds like a great place to colonize to me, except of course that it's on the far side.

I hope we see a lot more attention given to these lava tubes and the safe, comfortable environment they provide.

I grew up when all of these events were happening, quite amazing. This array of photos I have never seen before, quite a unique perspective, it makes me feel pretty small. It's obvious to me that the moon has withstood the barrage of elements that have been thrown in Mother Earth's direction for a very long time. Luna appears to have taken quite a bit of damage meant for us. I wonder if the moon was put there to be our shield to the cosmos so we have a better chance.

Why, golly-gee-WHIZ there Wally!!...We oughta go there in one of our new space rockets and check that out HUH?....that would be REALLLLL COOL and NEAT-O!!..Why I bet if we was a wantin' too, we could even build a SPACE PORT THERE and everything!!..even a neat ole runway so those shuttle things could take off and land there, just like here!!!...Gosh, Darn it Wally, I tell ya, we oughta do something like that real soon before those chinese git all the lit-e-um like they want in that for-een country....

AW KNOCK IT OFF BEEVE, you dad said we need the money for gas....

BUT WALLY, those pics look so cool, and besides, if dad was so worried about gas he woulda gave us a couple a buckets and some money to get our oil from the golf...

KNOCK IT OFF BEEVE, thats gulf, and how many times did I tell ya, we can't just get our own gas, we gotta let the gas companies make it!!...

AW SHUCKS WALLY, those gas companies make plenty of money, and they always make messes, remember when mom made us clean up their last mess on the west coast?....I bet if we tell them they can find gas up there, then we go!!...whadua think wally?

KNOCK IT OFF BEEVE, you know dads only saying that for an excuse, I think he wants china to buy one of those old rockwell shuttle things...here he comes, be careful, he had to fire a general today and he might be mad, so don't ask him for the allowance again till after supper...

OK Wally, but if alan was....I SAID KNOCK IT OFF BEEVE!!

...but can't I just ask dad for half a constellation rocket to see those nice lava tubes,

well, don't say I didn't warn ya beeve...aw heck go ahead, maybe dad ain't seen those new pictures, sometimes he changes his mind when he realizes how how acts like you sometimes....

whaddua mean wally?

The biggest crater and the coldest spot in the "SOLAR SYSTEM"?

Oh why not the galaxy?.....ah, public education.....

Obviously, you have nothing better to do at 1 in the morning.  No job?  Maybe go get one of those or better yet, why don't you go back to school for some education and maybe you will start to appreciate things like this.  Not a good way to go through life; with nothing to show for yourself except your ability to be obnoxious. 

I am no scientist, but "coldest spot in the solar system?" Doesn't seem remotely right to me... Wouldn't that be a moon around Uranus or Pluto instead? Much farther from the sun = colder.

Ray Smith... what a jerk!

Thanks Alan, another beautiful image and thought provoking article. I enjoyed reading it.

Peace

Wow, I love the moon. But howabout if we check out south East Missouri First. Lots of real cool stuff there. Hills, Caves, Iron, Gold. and some really great people. Except on Sunday. [ There all in Church then.] Was just there yesterday. Love it.

I'm so impressed with those Ozark Missouri Hills. Clear clean waters chucked full of healthy fish. Big open caves that run hundreds of miles . No spaceship needed. Two legs and a little push will get you on a place far better then the moon. A back pack and a fishing pole will feed you forever. Beware!! you may decide your home at last. and never come out of those hills. Johnonsite.

I didn't realize there are elevations of 20,000 feet or more. That's like Everest ! I was totally unaware

until now. How did mountains grow that high on the moon of all places where there was never any tectonic plate action?

The LRO images of the moon are spectacular and it's done an amazing job. There have been so many different types of images, but this one reminds me of the psychedelic period of the 60's. Those guys would have loved having this on their walls surrounded by lava lamps and shag carpets. Evidently the 60's are in again so it would be "groovy" to have the LRO image as a poster.

As for the conspiracy nuts, I'm sure they're still out there. You could send them to the moon and they still wouldn't believe that the truth is out there. They would rather believe that it was a giant wheel of Swiss cheese.

Gawd there are a few too many Cosmic Log groupies around !

Geez some people.  This is  furthering education. I can see how some people never knew. But some of you ought to learn to read and then go to the library. I would say use the internet, but seeing how you use it now, skip that.

Darrah...By groupies I meant the frequency with which the same posters come around. I am not on that

list. Everywhere I go it's Darrah Darrah Darahhhhh...

But anyway, instead of mocking my question about 20,000 foot mountains on the moon, why don't you just answer the question if you can??

Mike, Mike, Miiike...

First it was some people coming unglued because some of us dare to address 'Alan" or " Mr. Boyle."

Now it's you coming unglued because I post a lot. If I wanted to post on every article (which I don't), it wouldn't be any of YOUR business. Just so you know, there are times when NO ONE posts, even after a couple of days. I look at the article again and find something more interesting about it, then post. Alan works hard to write these articles so the least we can do is to comment. Speaking of which, do you know what the words "comment" and "discuss" mean? It doesn't mean that we HAVE to ask a brilliant question or make a brilliant statement. Sometimes it's OK to just to comment "Wow!"

BTW, I only made fun of your comment because I knew you were making fun of me--again, by calling me a groupie. I could be on the computer 24 hrs. a day, and comment on EVERY comment and would evidently have more of a life than you!

When a person get's into another person's business the way you have mine, it's usually a sign of something deeper. But no, I'm not going to post less because you're having a hissy fit over it. Find something else to be bitch about, Mikey!!

Darrah..are you a man? A teenage kid? It's hard to tell which.

My guess is that the mountains were thrown up due to large meteor impacts.

An observation on the new page design.... The main article, written in a black font - a pleasure to read. The comments, however, are light gray on a white background. Perhaps these 50-year old eyes are getting losing it, but the comments are a pain to read (referring to the font, of course, not the pain of reading such witty commentary).

I have a GREAT monitor, but whenever I can stand the eyestrain to read the comments I end up moving my face a foot closer to the screen, and magnifying the type.

Black type is good enough for the story - why aren't the comments worth a legible font choice?

(Otherwise - thanks for a great blog!)

~Michael