Posted on 09/22/2007 8:13:28 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An orbiting spacecraft has found evidence of what look like seven caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano, the space agency NASA said on Friday.
The Mars Odyssey spacecraft has sent back images of very dark, nearly circular features that appear to be openings to underground spaces.
"They are cooler than the surrounding surface in the day and warmer at night," said Glen Cushing of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Team and Northern Arizona University.
"Their thermal behavior is not as steady as large caves on Earth that often maintain a fairly constant temperature, but it is consistent with these being deep holes in the ground."
The holes, which the researchers have nicknamed the "Seven Sisters," are at some of the highest altitudes on the planet, on a volcano named Arsia Mons near Mars' tallest mountain, the researchers report in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
"Whether these are just deep vertical shafts or openings into spacious caverns, they are entries to the subsurface of Mars," said USGS researcher Tim Titus.
"Somewhere on Mars, caves might provide a protected niche for past or current life, or shelter for humans in the future."
But not these caves.
"These are at such extreme altitude, they are poor candidates either for use as human habitation or for having microbial life," Cushing said. "Even if life has ever existed on Mars, it may not have migrated to this height."
Seven very dark holes on the north slope of a Martian volcano are seen in this undated handout photo. An orbiting spacecraft has found evidence of what look like seven caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano, the space agency NASA said on Friday. (Handout/NASA/Reuters)
They look like shadows to me.
Bullet holes from Rednecks, firing a looooonng distance.
Lower middle and lower right look like holes, the other 4 look like shadows.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1900496/posts
And threads from months ago linked in that thread
In addition, the have imaged these with infrared imaging cameras, and during night shots, they show warm areas around the caves, and the daytime images show cooler regions around the caves.
Thanks!
A mystery indeed.
Okay
I’m a wee bit numb to understand that, so I’ll just agree with you.
That's what they discovered here, using a temperature sensitive camera.
Sand worms?
bin Laden?
And while we’re on the topic of Mars, did you know:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html
So, like, just exactly how are humans causing all this warming? Sure makes ME wonder anyway.
Are these caves some of Hillary’s or Algore’s condo’s?
Why do you pollute a serious thread with an inane post?
***Because of this thread. Same topic. Don’t like it? Then have that thread removed, and I will ask for the post in question on this thread to be removed.
NASA Orbiter Finds Possible Cave Skylights on Mars
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1900496/posts
JPL.NASA.GOV News Releases ^ | September 21, 2007
Posted on 09/21/2007 9:39:43 PM PDT by steve86
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
