[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: NASA, JPL, U. Arizona]

[advertising guy]

that’s the white side of Obama’s family passin a bit o wind

[fieldmarshaldj]

I wonder... is there a hole in Uranus ?

[cripplecreek]

Lava tube buried in the sand would be my guess. I know similar caves have been spotted elsewhere on mars.

Personally I think canyons and caves are the places we really need to look but its easier to land on open plains.

[LRS]

There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a hole, there’s a hole,
There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

What created this unusual hole in Mars?

It was an accident! I tripped and fell, all right -- ?!?

[Jonty30]

They are also good candidates for home bases, if we ever do manned missions.

[Happy Rain]

The near perfect circle and smooth contours suggests a direct hit by a comet traveling at such a high rate of speed it liquefied the ground and caused the “bouncing drop” effect one observes when a water drop falls in water...the final fall of the now partially cooled ball of Martian turf forming the cone while the still hot and gooey inner core collapses back into the depression to make the hole...

...just a guess-and if I am right the interior of the formation would resemble a domed stadium with a skylight--good location for shelter and terraforming.

[ETL]

How on Eart...on MARS, did Neil Armstrong miss this last time he was there??

On a visit to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2005, Jackson Lee made embarrassing news by asking if the Mars Pathfinder had taken an image of the flag planted there in 1969 by Neil Armstrong.[2]

Prior to the 110th Congress, Jackson Lee served on the House Science Committee and on the Subcommittee that oversees space policy and NASA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Jackson_Lee#Political_career

[Oratam]

I got my eye on you.

[Dust in the Wind]

Wonder what the liquid is at the bottom of that sinkhole.

[ETL]

[Thrownatbirth]

These pits are therefore prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots,

"Aw, crap! The Rover tipped over."

[Windflier]

"Analysis of this and follow-up images revealed the opening to be about 35 meters across, while the interior shadow angle indicates that the underlying cavern is roughly 20 meters deep."

I really wish that US government agencies would quit expressing measurements in metric units. I understand that the base ten system is superior to our ancient English system of measure, but few Americans can really think with meters, liters, millimeters, kilometers, etc.

I watched a science program the other night, and for once, the commentators expressed all measurements in miles, pounds, feet, and inches. It was surprisingly refreshing, because I was able to visualize the quantities and scales involved with no effort.

As far as I know, the US hasn't officially converted to the metric system. My generation (boomers) didn't learn it in school, even though we had a basic introduction to it. I don't know if children in US public schools are learning it today. If the science community insists upon using it in their work, that's fine, but they should understand that they put the general public in a fog when they attempt to communicate with us, using metric terminology.

[colorado tanker]

making them relatively good candidates to contain Martian life. These pits are therefore prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers

I'd be careful about going in there ...