Brent, the folks at NASA are kicking themselves after this... incredible find, and thanks for the post.
On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 11:34 PM, brent wodehouse < brent_wodeho...@thefence.us> wrote: > > > > http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/students-discover-mars-cave-100621.html > > 7th-Graders Discover Mysterious Cave on Mars > > By Clara Moskowitz > Senior Writer > > posted: 21 June 2010 > > A group of seventh-graders in California has discovered a mysterious cave > on Mars as part of a research project to study images taken by a NASA > spacecraft orbiting the red planet. > > The 16 students from teacher Dennis Mitchell's 7th-grade science class at > Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., found what looks to be a > Martian skylight - a hole in the roof of a cave on Mars > [http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091026-mm-mars-caves.html]. > > The intrepid students were participating in the Mars Student Imaging > Program at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University. The > program allows students to frame a research question and then commission a > Mars-orbiting camera to take an image to answer their question. > > The newfound hole on Mars > [ > http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=students-discover-mars-cave-100621-02.jpg&cap=California+7th+graders+discovered+this+Martian+pit+feature+at+the+center+of+the+superimposed+red+square+in+this+image+while+participat > > ing+in+a+program+that+enables+students+to+use+the+camera+on+NASA%27s+Mars+Odyssey+orbiter.+The+feature%2C+on+the+slope+of+an+equatorial+volcano+named+Pavonis+Mons%2C+appears+to+be+a+skylight+in+an+underground+lava+tube.+%3Ca+href%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.s > pace.com > %2Fscienceastronomy%2Fstudents-discover-mars-cave-100621.html%3EFull+Story%3C%2Fa%3E.+Credit%3A+NASA%2FJPL-Caltech%2FASU] > resembled features seen on other parts of Mars in a 2007 study by Glen > Cushing, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist. > > Cushing suggested that these anomalous pit craters > [http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070605_mars_hole.html ] are like > skylights - places where a small part of the roof of a cave or a lava tube > had collapsed, opening the area below the surface to the sky. > > The caves are thought to result from volcanic activity on the red planet. > At some point lava channels likely carved out caverns in the rock, and > then left behind tunnel, or "lava tubes," when the eruptions were over. > They would have been covered when a solid ceiling of cooled material > settled on top, and then sections of the ceiling likely collapsed at some > point to form the skylight entrances. > > Scientists aren't sure what type of materials or deposits could be stored > inside. > > "This pit is certainly new to us," Cushing told the students. "And it is > only the second one known to be associated with Pavonis Mons." > > He estimated the pit to be approximately 620 by 520 feet (190 by 160 > meters) wide and 380 feet (115 meters) deep at least. > > The young researchers had initially set out to hunt for lava tubes, a > common volcanic feature on Earth and Mars. > > "The students developed a research project focused on finding the most > common locations of lava tubes on Mars," Mitchell said. "Do they occur > most often near the summit of a volcano, on its flanks, or the plains > surrounding it?" > > The class commissioned a main photo and a backup image of Mars' Pavonis > Monsvolcano > [http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_daily_020507.html > ], > targeted on a region that hadn't been imaged up close. > > The pictures were taken by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter > [http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090312-odyssey-reboot.html ] using > its Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) instrument. Both images > showed lava tubes, as the students had hoped. > > But the backup photo provided another surprise: a small, round black spot. > It was a hole on Mars leading into the buried cave, researchers said. > > The students have submitted their site to be further imaged by the High > Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars > Reconnaissance Orbiter, which could reveal enough detail to see inside the > hole in the ground. > > "The Mars Student Imaging Program is certainly one of the greatest > educational programs ever developed," Mitchell said. "It gives the > students a good understanding of the way research is conducted and how > that research can be important for the scientific community. This has been > a wonderful experience." > > > -- "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
