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APOD: 2007 May 28 - A Hole in Mars Explanation: Black spots have been discovered on Mars that are so dark that nothing inside can be seen. Quite possibly, the spots are entrances to deep underground caves capable of protecting Martian life, were it to exist... The diameter of the hole is about the length of a football field. And we've found seven of these holes so far. The Martians must live inside Mars. We've all seen too many sci-fi movies not to think "spaceport." More (Windows onto the abyss: cave skylights on Mars) at The Planetary Society: 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. The Society's astronomy blogger is Emily Lakdawalla, who has a master’s in planetary geology from Brown University. |
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