Today's image: Mars' Mystery -Black Holes, Portals to an Underground World?

[Ichingcarpenter]

Today's image: Mar's Mystery -Black Holes, Portals to an Underground World?

In this HiRISE captured an image of a black spot mars the flank of Arsia Mons that is most likely a portal innto a subterranean cavern. Their identifications were based upon Mars Odyssey THEMIS images, which achieve resolutions of a little better than 20 meters per pixel; having spotted the caves, they requested that the sharper-eyed HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter target the spots for more detailed imaging. The image above is the first one of these, and it shows the cave entrance called Jeanne.

There is absolutely nothing visible inside that hole. HiRISE is a very sensitive instrument, but it seems that the cave is so big and so deep that almost none of the light that enters the cave comes out. It's deep, and it's big; the hole that we see really is just a skylight on a big subterranean room. We'll never know for sure how big or deep the hole is without a manned mission visiting it, but the HiRISE team will calculate the sensitivity of the camera to put a lower limit on how deep that cave must be for HiRISE to be able to see nothing at all inside it.



That's where John Carter lives and rules Mars.

[Richard Steele]

1. Cynthia used to drink Slurm. nm

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Dejah Thoris is who I had in mind

Who's Cythina?

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. the seven caves, which they refer to by the names Dena, Chloe, Wendy, Annie, Abbey, Nikki, and Jeann

Possible cave entrances on Mars
Seven dark spots seen in Mars Odyssey THEMIS images could be the entrances to underground caves on Mars. The researchers who identified these caves have given them the following names:

Dena (-6.084 N, 239.061 E)
Chloe (-4.926 N, 239.193 E)
Wendy (-8.099 N, 240.242 E)
Annie (-6.267 N, 240.005 E)
Abbey & Nikki (-8.498 N, 240.349 E)
Jeanne (-5.636 N, 241.259 E)
Credit: NASA / JPL / U. Arizona / G. Cushing et al. 2007

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


More close up photos of the holes at the link.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. It is a volcanic pit crater, not a "portal to an underground world".

If you would like to see another volcanic pit crater, try Hawaii.




http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/20070829-1.html

[Norrin Radd]

5. It's a provocative title to get people

interested in a science article.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. I'm allergic to bullshit.

For example, the alleged 'portal' requires manned exploration.

[Norrin Radd]

4. J'onn J'onzz

or how about Gallinger? I could do this all day. ;-)

[Ian David]

7. The holes are made of monoliths. n/t

[mike_c]

8. It's full of stars....

:sigh:

[qb]

10. I got to wondering... why are all of the holes named after women. Are the mountains named after men?

It seems a lot of them are.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountains_on_Mars
:wtf:

[Kaleva]

11. Same goes for plumbing parts.

There are male and female fittings.

[BadgerKid]

12. GIANT SPACE SLUG!

[shanti]

13. omg

another ERB fan?? :hi:

[Ichingcarpenter]

14. I admit As a 12 year old boy his books plus Frank Frazetta

cover artwork got me hooked on Science Fiction and reading

Never read much before that but consumed a book a week after
someone gave me a paperback book.

Then went on to much better writers.

My teachers remarked that my reading level had grown almost
2 years that year I started.

[shanti]

15. my father

turned my bookworm self on to ERB (martian books, tarzan) back in the 60's. total escape from reality books and the artwork definitely was awesome. dad was a huge sci fi fan and also introduced me to asimov, bradbury, and heinlein, etc.