It's bound to happen. One day, winter Olympics will be held on the Moon.

The moon's dust-covered slopes are good places to ski. There's plenty of
powder, moguls and low-gravity. With only 1/6^th^ g holding them down,
skiers and snowboarders can do some jaw-dropping tricks. Can you say
XXXX? Plus, crashes happen in slow-motion, so it doesn't hurt so much to
wipe out.

And there's a perfect spot for the Olympic village: the crater Plato.

The ancient philosopher Plato was an Olympic champion in the sport of
pankration\--a fierce combination of boxing and wrestling. His namesake
crater is flat-bottomed, filled with raw materials for building
habitats, and, like Torun, Italy, located near the Alps.

That is, the *lunar* Alps.

The lunar Alps are a range of mountains on the Moon named after the Alps
of Europe. They are similar to their Earthly counterparts in height,
breath and spectacle. Since the modern Olympic Games began in 1896, most
of the winter games have been held in the Alps. Why should the Moon be
any different.

You can see the lunar Alps using a backyard telescope; this week is an
excellent time to try:

Step outside at sundown and look up at the moon. The Olympic Village,
crater Plato, is a conspicuous dark oval on the northern shore of the
Sea of Rains. Your unaided eye is sufficient to see it.

Train your telescope on Plato. The Alps begin there. They stretch around
the rim of the Sea of Rains from Plato through the spectacular Alpine
Valley to towering Mont Blanc. Amateur astronomer Alan Friedman of
Buffalo, New York, took this picture of the scene using his 10-inch
reflector:

This is, by the way, a wonderful thing about the moon. It's so nearby
(250,000 miles) you can see spectacular vistas through very ordinary
telescopes.

Although the two Alps look much alike, they formed in different ways:

The Alps of Earth grew over a period of millions of years. Powered by
plate tectonics, sections of Earth's crust pushed together, squeezing
the land to produce jagged mountains. About 11 million people live in
the Alps today. The range stretches from France to Austria; the tallest
peak is Mont Blanc, 4.8 km high.

The Alps of the Moon were formed in an instant some 4 billion years ago
when a huge asteroid struck. The collision blasted out the Sea of Rains,
which, contrary to its name, is a big crater and not a big sea. The Alps
are the "splash" from the impact. (The Alps aren't the only splash. Mare
Imbrium is rimmed by lunar Jura and Apennine mountains, too.)

In those early days, lunar Alps were probably as jagged as the Alps of
Earth. But in eons that followed, meteoroids relentlessly pounded the
moon, smashing rocks into dust and blunting the sharp edges of mountain
peaks. Today's lunar Alps are a bit shorter (the moon's Mont Blanc is
only 3.6 km high) and a lot smoother than their Earthly
counterparts---perfect for Olympics.

In the weeks ahead, Science@NASA will publish a series of stories
exploring the physics of low-gravity Olympics. Is an XXXX really
possible? Can ice skaters skate on super-cold lunar ice? Should
snowboarders be allowed to pilot lunar landers? Stay tuned for the
answers to these questions and others---with exclusive video from
Olympic athletes.

Let the Games begin!