Fresh lava looks like the last place anything could live, yet biologists are now finding microbial communities moving in ...

The international journal Earth-Science Reviews published a paper offering an overview of the lava tubes (pyroducts) on Earth, eventually providing an estimate of the (greater) size of their lunar and ...

What can lava tubes on Earth teach us about finding life on Mars? This is a recent study published in Communications Earth & Environment hopes to address as an international team of researchers ...

Lava tubes beneath the surface of Mars and the moon could be, respectively, 100 and 1,000 times wider than lava tubes on Earth, which could provide shelter and create exploration opportunities for ...

Sometimes, all you need for a new discovery is some creative math. That was the case for a new paper by Edward Williams and Laurent Montési of the University of Maryland's Department of Geology. They ...

Mars skylights like this could be the mouths of caves formed by lava tubes. NASA wants to explore them. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Univ. of Arizona Ever since scientists have had an orbiter's view ...

A team of Chinese researchers has identified eight caves in Mars’ Hebrus Valles that may have been sculpted by water. These ...

Imagine trying to pick up a pebble or scrape microbes off a cave wall in a bulky spacesuit with puffy gloves on, under a time constraint because you don’t want to run out of oxygen. That’s what the ...

Planetary exploration, specifically within our own Solar System, has provided a lifetime of scientific knowledge about the many worlds beyond Earth. However, this exploration, thus far, has primarily ...

When looking for safe places for astronauts to stay when they venture away from Earth to new moons and planets, one strong contender is that they should stay underground. Being underground means more ...

Lava tubes and chambers attract a lot of attention as potential sites for bases on the moon and Mars. They provide protection from radiation, from temperature swings, and even from meteorites. They ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — In 2017, Purdue University researchers helped discover a lava tube on the moon that could protect astronauts from hazardous conditions on the surface. Now, 3D image ...