* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Magicians and Battlebots light up Las Vegas entertainment scene – KSNV

    Magicians and Battlebots Take Las Vegas Entertainment by Storm

    Max-Matching Entertainments & Longhua District form partnership for new entertainment complex – Blooloop

    Max-Matching Entertainments and Longhua District Unite to Launch Thrilling New Entertainment Complex

    Kennedy Publishing, MGA Entertainment Launch Yummiland Magazine – License Global

    Kennedy Publishing, MGA Entertainment Launch Yummiland Magazine – License Global

    MAY HER SOUL REST IN PEACE 🙏 Veteran entertainment columnist and talent manager Lolit Solis has passed away. She was 78 years old. https://tinyurl.com/6kumarkx | LatestChika.com – Facebook

    Beloved Entertainment Icon Lolit Solis Passes Away at 78 – A Life Remembered with Love and Respect 🙏

    Neil Young Plays Rare Full-Band ‘Ambulance Blues’ With The Chrome Hearts – Yahoo

    Neil Young Stuns Fans with Rare Full-Band Performance of ‘Ambulance Blues’ Alongside The Chrome Hearts

    BTS Announce Their Big Return and Yes, They Already Have Some Major Plans in the Works – Yahoo

    BTS Announce Their Big Return and Yes, They Already Have Some Major Plans in the Works – Yahoo

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Column: Teach kupuna new technology skills – Honolulu Star-Advertiser

    Empowering Kupuna: Unlocking New Technology Skills for a Connected Future

    EIFO invests $5 million in D3, the Ukraine-focused defence technology venture fund – sUAS News

    EIFO Pledges $5 Million to Supercharge Ukraine-Focused Defense Technology Fund

    New Technology for Water Efficiency and Working with Mexico on Screwworm – AG INFORMATION NETWORK OF THE WEST

    Revolutionary Water Efficiency Technology and Cross-Border Collaboration to Defeat Screwworm

    Environmental cognitive distance, R&D capability distance, and supply chain green technology innovation – Nature

    Bridging Gaps: How Environmental and R&D Differences Drive Green Technology Innovation in Supply Chains

    LG Innotek CEO Moon Hyuksoo: “Our Next-gen Substrate Technology Will Change the Industry Paradigm” – TechPowerUp

    LG Innotek CEO Moon Hyuksoo: “Our Next-Gen Substrate Technology Will Revolutionize the Industry” Revolutionizing the Future: LG Innotek’s CEO Unveils Game-Changing Next-Gen Substrate Technology

    Inspira Technologies Secures Landmark $22.5M Deal: Major Revenue Breakthrough After FDA Clearance – Stock Titan

    Inspira Technologies Secures Landmark $22.5M Deal: Major Revenue Breakthrough After FDA Clearance – Stock Titan

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Magicians and Battlebots light up Las Vegas entertainment scene – KSNV

    Magicians and Battlebots Take Las Vegas Entertainment by Storm

    Max-Matching Entertainments & Longhua District form partnership for new entertainment complex – Blooloop

    Max-Matching Entertainments and Longhua District Unite to Launch Thrilling New Entertainment Complex

    Kennedy Publishing, MGA Entertainment Launch Yummiland Magazine – License Global

    Kennedy Publishing, MGA Entertainment Launch Yummiland Magazine – License Global

    MAY HER SOUL REST IN PEACE 🙏 Veteran entertainment columnist and talent manager Lolit Solis has passed away. She was 78 years old. https://tinyurl.com/6kumarkx | LatestChika.com – Facebook

    Beloved Entertainment Icon Lolit Solis Passes Away at 78 – A Life Remembered with Love and Respect 🙏

    Neil Young Plays Rare Full-Band ‘Ambulance Blues’ With The Chrome Hearts – Yahoo

    Neil Young Stuns Fans with Rare Full-Band Performance of ‘Ambulance Blues’ Alongside The Chrome Hearts

    BTS Announce Their Big Return and Yes, They Already Have Some Major Plans in the Works – Yahoo

    BTS Announce Their Big Return and Yes, They Already Have Some Major Plans in the Works – Yahoo

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Column: Teach kupuna new technology skills – Honolulu Star-Advertiser

    Empowering Kupuna: Unlocking New Technology Skills for a Connected Future

    EIFO invests $5 million in D3, the Ukraine-focused defence technology venture fund – sUAS News

    EIFO Pledges $5 Million to Supercharge Ukraine-Focused Defense Technology Fund

    New Technology for Water Efficiency and Working with Mexico on Screwworm – AG INFORMATION NETWORK OF THE WEST

    Revolutionary Water Efficiency Technology and Cross-Border Collaboration to Defeat Screwworm

    Environmental cognitive distance, R&D capability distance, and supply chain green technology innovation – Nature

    Bridging Gaps: How Environmental and R&D Differences Drive Green Technology Innovation in Supply Chains

    LG Innotek CEO Moon Hyuksoo: “Our Next-gen Substrate Technology Will Change the Industry Paradigm” – TechPowerUp

    LG Innotek CEO Moon Hyuksoo: “Our Next-Gen Substrate Technology Will Revolutionize the Industry” Revolutionizing the Future: LG Innotek’s CEO Unveils Game-Changing Next-Gen Substrate Technology

    Inspira Technologies Secures Landmark $22.5M Deal: Major Revenue Breakthrough After FDA Clearance – Stock Titan

    Inspira Technologies Secures Landmark $22.5M Deal: Major Revenue Breakthrough After FDA Clearance – Stock Titan

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

The ‘hole’ on Mars making headlines could be crucial to Red Planet exploration

June 7, 2024
in Science
The ‘hole’ on Mars making headlines could be crucial to Red Planet exploration
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

A white background with a black circle that appears to be a hole.

The alluring pit crater on Arsia Mons, imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/UArizona)

A mysterious pit on the flank of an ancient volcano on Mars has generated excitement recently because of what it could reveal beneath the surface of the Red Planet. Here’s what that means.

First things first, the pit, which is only a few meters across, was actually imaged on Aug. 15, 2022 by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which was about 159 miles (256 kilometers) above the Martian surface at the time. This hole in the ground is also not alone. It’s one of many seen on the flanks of a trio of large volcanoes in the Tharsis region of Mars. This particular pit is found on a lava flow on the extinct volcano Arsia Mons, and appears to be a vertical shaft. That raises a question: Is it just a narrow pit, or does it lead to a much larger and remarkable cavern? Or, could it perhaps be a really deep lava tube formed underground long ago when the volcano was still active? 

Related: NASA’s Mars sample return mission is in trouble. Could a single SLS megarocket be the answer?

There are several reasons why pits and caves on Mars are of interest. For one, they could provide shelter for astronauts in the future; because Mars has a thin atmosphere and lacks a global magnetic field, it cannot ward off radiation from space the way that Earth does. Consequently, radiation exposure on the Martian surface averages between 40 and 50 times greater than on Earth. 

The other enticing aspect of these pits is they might not just provide shelter for human astronauts; they could hold astrobiological interest in the sense that they could have been sheltered abodes for Martian life in the past — perhaps even today, if microbial life indeed exists there.

The presence of these so-called holes on the flanks of volcanoes is a big clue that they are probably connected to volcanic activity on Mars. Channels of lava can flow away from a volcano underground; when the volcano grows extinct, the channel empties. That leaves behind a long, underground tube. We see such tubes not only on Mars, but also on the moon and on Earth. 

A grayscale scene with a rocky-looking surface (viewed from an above angle) and a dark pit.

Another pit crater on Arsia Mons, again imaged by the HiRISE instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/UArizona)

Sometimes, if the crust is thin enough, the ceiling of these tubes collapses. If a collapse happens along the tube’s entire length, it forms a feature called a rille, which is a long trench commonly found on the moon and sometimes in other areas of Mars. If the tube’s ceiling just collapses in small areas, however, we get pits like those imaged on Arsia Mons. Planetary scientists have also seen pit chains on the flanks of Martian volcanoes, which are linear stretches of multiple pits seemingly following the length of a lava tube.

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

A grayscale scene with features on the surface of this world, which is viewed from an above angle. Some look like a dotted path and other look like long streaks.

Pit chains in a region of Mars called Tractus Catena, which is on the south-western flank of Alba Mons, an old volcano. This image was taken by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission.   (Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum))

How deep these pits descend is a mystery, however, and it remains uncertain whether the pits open into a large cavern or whether they are contained to a small, cylindrical depression. Some Martian pits have been imaged when the sun is high enough in the sky to illuminate what appears to be the sides of the pit wall, which implies they are shafts that go straight down into the flank of the volcano. This would seem to suggest these pits are unlikely to open into larger caves or tubes. If so, this would make them similar to pit craters found on the volcanic mountains of Hawaii, which also don’t open up to anything larger and which are produced by the collapse of material deeper underground, which causes material above to sink.

However, pits on the moon have been shown to have boulder-strewn floors that appear as though they could lead to a larger subterranean volume.

A grayscale scene of the lunar surface, viewed from above, with what looks to be a shallow pit.

A pit crater on the moon, imaged by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Boulders can be seen on the floor of the pit, and it gives the impression of opening into a wider chasm.  (Image credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University)

Pits can also be formed through tectonic stresses that fracture a world’s surface, and these may be less likely to lead to a larger cavern. And finally, one other — possibly less likely — explanation is that these pits open up into where underground rivers once flowed billions of years ago.

We can see a similar phenomenon on Earth, in the form of a geological feature called a karst, which forms when limestone bedrock dissolves and weakens, creating pits and sinkholes that open up into areas of groundwater. If that is the case on Mars, then, if the Red Planet ever once had life, those organisms may have sheltered in karsts. Indeed, running water down the flank of an active volcano would have been warm, providing the perfect protected environment for life to flourish and stay safe.

Still, this is all speculation for now. We’ll only have some concrete answers after future missions actually explore some of these pits. Though a rover that drives to the edge of a pit would be unable to descend, an airborne mission along the same lines as NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, which operated on Mars for three years before it became grounded in January 2024 after damaging one of its rotor blades, would have the ability to hover over and descend into a pit to see what is down there.

If these pits do open up into caves, they may become a preferred landing site for future crewed missions to Mars that will require astronauts to build a sheltered basecamp away from the world’s unrelenting radiation.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Keith Cooper is a freelance science journalist and editor in the United Kingdom, and has a degree in physics and astrophysics from the University of Manchester. He’s the author of “The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020) and has written articles on astronomy, space, physics and astrobiology for a multitude of magazines and websites.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Space.com – https://www.space.com/mars-hole-red-planet-exploration-volcanoes-life

Tags: 'hole'Makingscience
Previous Post

Last-minute leak reveals everything Apple plans to announce at WWDC 2024

Next Post

Thruster glitches and helium leaks can’t stop Boeing’s Starliner astronaut test flight — but why are they happening?

Column: Teach kupuna new technology skills – Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Empowering Kupuna: Unlocking New Technology Skills for a Connected Future

July 6, 2025
Ben Shelton’s sister booed by Wimbledon crowd when job revealed – Yahoo Sports

Wimbledon Crowd Booes Ben Shelton’s Sister Following Shocking Job Reveal

July 6, 2025
New book digs into Indigenous cuisine through archaeology, culture, ecology – Gander Newsroom

Unveiling Indigenous Cuisine: Exploring the Rich Tapestry of Archaeology, Culture, and Ecology

July 6, 2025
BANG! James Webb telescope catches stray galaxies in the Bullet Cluster: Space photo of the week – Live Science

BANG! James Webb Telescope Unveils Breathtaking Image of Stray Galaxies in the Bullet Cluster

July 6, 2025
How Do You Teach Computer Science in the A.I. Era? – The New York Times

Unlocking Success: Mastering Computer Science Education in the Age of A.I

July 6, 2025
If you want to be younger looking in 60 days, start practicing these 8 daily habits – VegOut

If you want to be younger looking in 60 days, start practicing these 8 daily habits – VegOut

July 6, 2025
Real Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund 3-2: FIFA Club World Cup – as it happened – Al Jazeera

Real Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund 3-2: FIFA Club World Cup – as it happened – Al Jazeera

July 6, 2025

Israel’s economy can’t survive a long war with Iran – and Trump knows it – Middle East Eye

July 6, 2025
The long-term health risks as extreme heat becomes a new normal – PBS

Uncovering the Silent, Long-Term Health Risks of Life in Extreme Heat

July 6, 2025
Trump Says He Will Start Talks With China on TikTok Deal – The New York Times

Trump Says He Will Start Talks With China on TikTok Deal – The New York Times

July 6, 2025

Categories

Archives

July 2025
MTWTFSS
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031 
« Jun    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (707)
  • Economy (732)
  • Entertainment (21,621)
  • General (15,741)
  • Health (9,770)
  • Lifestyle (737)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (733)
  • Politics (741)
  • Science (15,949)
  • Sports (21,232)
  • Technology (15,717)
  • World (713)

Recent News

Column: Teach kupuna new technology skills – Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Empowering Kupuna: Unlocking New Technology Skills for a Connected Future

July 6, 2025
Ben Shelton’s sister booed by Wimbledon crowd when job revealed – Yahoo Sports

Wimbledon Crowd Booes Ben Shelton’s Sister Following Shocking Job Reveal

July 6, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version