The Caverns of Mars

noosfractal · 2007-05-25 16:41:06

http://planetary.org/blog/article/00000984

Today's set of image releases from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE team included this one, of a fairly bland-looking lava plain to the northeast of Arsia Mons. Bland, that is, except for a black spot in the center. What's that black spot? It's a window onto an underground world.
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At its highest resolution of 25 centimeters per pixel, the HiRISE camera can see the detailed shape of the slightly scalloped edge of a hole on the flank of Mars' Arsia Mons (left), but no amount of image enhancement (right) can bring out any further details inside the hole. That means that the walls of the cave are overhanging -- the cave is larger below the ground than the entrance we can see at the surface -- and that it is very deep. Mars' dusty atmosphere produces enough scattered light that "skylight" would illuminate the floor of a shallow cavern well enough for HiRISE to detect it.
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cIclops · 2007-05-25 17:49:05

Nice images. Maybe that's where Beagle 2 went

noosfractal · 2007-05-25 22:16:04

Nice images. Maybe that's where Beagle 2 went

Can't wait to find out more about them, could be good as the basis for a pressurized town. Also implies the existence of structures like lava tubes.

cIclops · 2007-05-27 01:40:48

Could be the eroded end of a vertical lava tube. This image shows clear evidence for lava tubes.

noosfractal · 2007-05-27 03:57:27

Could be the eroded end of a vertical lava tube. This image shows clear evidence for lava tubes.

Thanks, I missed that one. Lava tubes could be quite large on Mars. Now if only we can find one with a convenient underground frozen lake of water nearby

dicktice · 2007-06-05 18:23:47

Very funny, you jokers ... but this here is something really unexpected, about whch I find it amazing that no reference to "the caverns of Mars" has yet found its way into the daily press, television, or radio international talk-show overnight rebroadcasts.

What could've caused those almost perfectly circular, cliff-edged holes, the size of small impact craters in the vicinity of several but without the requisite ridges, and in fact showing no visible relationship to their surrounding surface terrain features?

These unexpected (I assume) cavern discoveries should be followed-up immediately by revising currently planned mission instrumentation, where feasible. for use in low Mars orbit, and on surface rovers guided in stages right to the brink of at least one cavern, for the purpose of lowering multispectral high-definition binocular television packages down into it.

Are there more of these things elsewhere on Mars, now that we know what to look for?

Number04 · 2007-06-07 11:19:04

Here is some more info
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 … _hole.html

dicktice · 2007-06-08 14:17:25

Although not obvious, because of being on the shady side of the hole selected to show no bottom--even at maximum contrast--by enlarging the image broken cliffs can just be discerned all the way around the edge of the hole. The thickness at the edge, compared with the hole diameter of only 100 meters, must be only 10 meters or so. I'd like to see the edges enlarged even more to observe even more detail in the ragged overhangs jutting out over the black opening. I can't help wondering why there seems to be no mention of these black holes in the news media?

cIclops · 2007-06-08 15:31:23

There was a whole story about it somewhere.

dicktice · 2007-06-08 20:29:59

Yes ... but where in the popular media? Look at the front-page coverage the "oceans of Mars" hypothesis is getting, which places them at over two billion years ago. Contrast this with the lack of coverage of the black hole discoveries--the hypothesized "cavern skylights"-- which are current, and thus of vital interest to mission planners as potential colony locations to be investigated as soon as possible.

dicktice · 2007-07-01 11:09:28

Why are all of these holes so circular? Lava tubes are generally parallel with the terrain, so localized cave-ins would be elongated, or at least oval rather than circular. And the crustal edges of the hole selected for magnification (called "Jeanne") shows uniform thickness all the way around, inferring a dome-roofed cavern curving symetrically away in all directions beneath the crust. And, since the point of view must have been from directly overhead, the jagged edges appear to be slanted slightly inward from the outer to the inner edges. Given the roughly 100 meter diameter and assuming a slope of 60-70 degrees, say, a good approximation of the thickness of the crust at the edges might be calculated to determine the tensile strength of the overburden in the region of the hole. Notice also the distinctl lighter colored material extending from entire breadth of the hole, in the northerly direction. Now, what could possibly be the cause of that?

Cosmophobic space buff! · 2007-07-05 21:17:29

It looks like somebody poked a pencil through the photograph! :evil:

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#1 2007-05-25 16:41:06

Re: The Caverns of Mars

#2 2007-05-25 17:49:05

Re: The Caverns of Mars

#3 2007-05-25 22:16:04

Re: The Caverns of Mars

#4 2007-05-27 01:40:48

Re: The Caverns of Mars

#5 2007-05-27 03:57:27

Re: The Caverns of Mars

#6 2007-06-05 18:23:47

Re: The Caverns of Mars

#7 2007-06-07 11:19:04

Re: The Caverns of Mars

#8 2007-06-08 14:17:25

Re: The Caverns of Mars

#9 2007-06-08 15:31:23

Re: The Caverns of Mars

#10 2007-06-08 20:29:59

Re: The Caverns of Mars

#11 2007-07-01 11:09:28

Re: The Caverns of Mars

#12 2007-07-05 21:17:29

Re: The Caverns of Mars

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