Caves on Mars

Paul McNay, Tampa Bay, FL — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:13:55 GMT

Amazing. You ever see that movie the Descent? What if something like that goes down...?

Caves on Mars

dan brown lakeland fl. — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:19:57 GMT

they were dug--look at the nice circle of dirt next to the hole--nicely piled--are some people of the earth martians and brought technology?

Caves on Mars

Chris Eldridge, Harrisburg PA — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:53:18 GMT

There are some state-sized caverns here on earth. Boy, if something like that was found on Mars... I instantly thought of the ground-penetrating radar and with the small, blurry images, I knew right away these weren't images from the new recon orbiter. To be honest, info from the new recon orbiter seems quite scarce. I saw a few test images but it's been in operation since November. Where was its closeup pictures of that collapsed crater wall suspected to be flow of water?

Caves on Mars

Chris E — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:56:06 GMT

That last one looks like it's venting something to the north. And what are those puffy domes?

Caves on Mars

Albert Allen, Palmer, Alaska — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 21:25:23 GMT

I'll accept your word that the radar proves these are holes and not just unusual shadows. What I find remarkable is, whether holes or shadows, the circular nature of the phenomena in six of the seven cases. Do sinkhole entrances to cave systems on Earth also have this uniform characteristic?

Caves on Mars

Kyle, Orange County, CA — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 23:01:51 GMT

Perhaps these are a series of connected tubes, a Martian "Internet"...We should send senator Ted Stevens on a spelunking mission to the red planet :-)

Caves on Mars

wes diamond — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 00:07:06 GMT

beware contact with life on mars could kill us all any thing alive their is much stronger then any thing here if it lives.

Caves on Mars

Des Emery,The Carborundum Chronicles,St.Thomas,ON,Canada — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 01:42:09 GMT

Chris - the 'puffy domes' remind me of natural features of the Arctic called 'pingoes.' Here they are roundish upheavals under the ocean mainly, but also found on land, caused by the expansion of icy fairly deep under the earth. On Mars with its much lower gravity and much colder and thinner atmosphere, pingoes could be larger and high-rising swellings - ice there is still ice, about one-tenth more in solid form than water would be.

The dark spots could be lava-tube collapses but the tubes would have to be fairly deep for them to be circular, like sinkholes here (see Florida) since shallow tubes would make irregular vents along the length of the tubes rather than circles.

Those two projections do not mesh together, which would make one or the other or both invalid. We will probably have to wait for new information.

Caves on Mars

Will, Snoqualmie, WA — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 02:21:21 GMT

This is pretty darn cool.

Caves on Mars

Robert K, San Diego CA — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 02:44:20 GMT

What you said is not necessarily true, it would be true if they could live outside, and living underground is proof that they might not be able to survive in outside conditions, just like we can't survive in mars, plus everything is relative, Earth's atmosphere could be mortal for extraterrestrial life, don't you think?

Caves on Mars

james albert, san diego, ca — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 02:45:51 GMT

They do look very symmetrical. But I wouldn't jump to conclusions. If life is present in those holes, wouldn't some sort of gas/chemical signature be present? Methane or something of the sort?

Caves on Mars

Patrick Bishop, Caldwell, NJ — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:50:38 GMT

I question the likelihood that some of the images show skylights. I find the first image of the supposed skylight adjacent to obvious impact craters especially suspicious. It does not seem immediately reasonable that an impact crater would create an adjacent void of dimensions sufficient to allow for such a large and symmetrical skylight. If the void predates the impact crater, the crater itself should have either opened an entrance to a void or so disturbed the void that it should have completely collapsed.

High-resolution images of Olympus Mons clearly show lava tubes with collapses in various places. Since terrestrial lava always contains water vapor, it is not impossible that the same is true of Martian lava. If true, wouldn't a Martian lava tube be a reasonable candidate for living vestiges of an ancient ecosystem, or perhaps well-preserved fossil evidence of the same?

A possible explanation for at least some of the features is collapsed magma chambers. In Mars' lower gravity, it may be that an evacuated lava chamber may exist as a covered void for a long time. Assuming an essentially round magma chamber, when the roof does start to collapse it might not be surprising to find an otherwise unexplainable round hole gaping up at the sky.

Caves on Mars

Christopher Thunder Eagle, Madison, WI — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 04:41:46 GMT

So THESE are the tubes everyone's talking about when they say that Mars went down the tubes a long time ago! I always wondered!

Caves on Mars

Mo, Denver, CO — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 05:14:18 GMT

or perhaps much weaker (lower ambient pressure and gravity). I'm pretty sure I could take on a martian.

Caves on Mars

Marek, Toronto — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 05:46:33 GMT

Chris E.: The "puffy domes" are craters - look at the shadows.

Caves on Mars

simeet gandhi — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 08:54:50 GMT

Why dismiss the bubble dome-encased cities? Satellite lasers would destroy any incoming asteroids. No danger of cave-ins, and brighter too. Terraform the atmosphere to inhibit the radiation and increase the temperature. e-mail me at simeetgandhi@hotmail.com

Caves on Mars

Joel Harper, Baltimore, Maryland — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 08:59:42 GMT

Five of the six holes appear to be high velocity punctures due to strikes from space. The bottom left shot does to, but with some of the rim collapsed into the hole. I would be glad to have entrances into caverns on at least one of these but the rest might just be vertical holes of unknown depth.

Caves on Mars

Ima Shure — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:57:44 GMT

Good heavens. They've discovered some holes on the surface of mars. Martha, grab the kids and head for the cellar. They've finally discovered where all the little green men have been hiding all these years. Maybe we can get Geraldo Rivera to go check for hidden treasures. After all the hoopla over finding a few holes, I hope they find more than Rivera did in Al Kapone's hidden vault.

Caves on Mars

Benjamin Pam, New York, NY — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:19:44 GMT

Great news! I hope everyone gets excited about Mars again, and space and solar system exploration gets back on track. Let's go to Mars! Robots can't do the work properly, we need "boots on the ground." Of course, we should be careful about contaminating Mars with Earth life, and likewise careful about bringing back any potential Mars life. I hope President Bush sees this article. We don't need a moon base, we need another habitable planet. There's too many people, we're running out of room (and water,etc.). If the USA can't put a team of humans on Mars, nobody else will believe they can. Let's go already!

Caves on Mars

Mike Maxwell — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:35:46 GMT

For Chris E--the "domes" are actually craters, as you'll see if you turn the picture (or your head) upside down. The human eye (or brain) is used to interpreting the light as coming from overhead, and when it sees a picture where the light comes from the opposite direction (as in from the bottom of a picture), it interprets the relief in the wrong direction. There are similar pictures of lunar craters that show that optical illusion.

Caves on Mars

jackie,madison hieghts,MI — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:52:33 GMT

i think its about time we'v made some great progress on observing something other then the moon, i cant wait to see what comes up next you cant doubt what could be really out there think about it we know nothing els about this galaexy other then our world the moon and what our imaginations hold

Caves on Mars

Food For Thought, Hungry, PA — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:09:35 GMT

Now only if those holes were part of the Swiss-Cheese Confederation of the Caseous Group (SCCCG) and in those holes were some mega-Mars Bars...Bring 'em on!

Caves on Mars

David Stever — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:25:34 GMT

Dan Brown-
The 'piles of dirt' are the lit edge of the entrance. Light is coming from the left, lighting the right edge of the holes.

Chris Eldridge-
The puffy domes are actually the illusion created by the light source. Your eyes will see the craters as holes with shadows to the left side, else puffy domes, with light on the right, and shadows again on the left. The spray to the north of Jeanne is interesting. I hope we have enough instruments in orbit to investigate these targets. Do other volcanoes have tubes/holes? What makes Arsia Mons so special that these features are so obvious?

Caves on Mars

Fran Smith Dallas, Texas — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:27:24 GMT

Too funny! Read the novel COMMONALITY by R.T. Hitchcock, published by Sense of Wonder Press--the author already assumes these caves AND what lurks below!

Caves on Mars

JC, Riverton, CT (Go 'Noles!) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:51:01 GMT

Albert Allen, Yes, Terrestrial sinkhole entrances to cave systems on also exhibit circularity? In the state of Florida they are numerous and often serve as swim holes for both man and gator. (the caves systems are underwater and make for interesting scuba adventures).

Caves on Mars

Chris Lindeman, Philadelphia, Pa — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:00:12 GMT

Cool! How long is it going to take to go up there and explore these caves?? Hopefully in my lifetime. Why were you guys able to go to the moon in 5 yrs and now it takes decades to get anything done?

Caves on Mars

Randy, Montgomery IL — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:43:07 GMT

The large circular features you see are impact craters. The illumination is traveling from left to right.

Caves on Mars

Astrochronic — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:24:00 GMT

There is no, nor was there ever, any life on Mars. This is a false hope. These pictures are odd. It almost looks like a hoax. In the first pic the anomoly is right on the edge of a crater but there is no deformity to the edge of the crater. That seems strange to me. It looks like the hole was photoshopped in. I am sure this is not the case but that is how it looks to me.

Caves on Mars

Astrochronic — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:31:29 GMT

Those puffy domes are an optical illusion. They are actually craters. If they were domes they would be casting a shadow on ground on the dark side.

Caves on Mars

Matt, Burlington, MA — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:31:34 GMT

Those are fairly low hills next to the holes. These things weren't dug. Interesting note on the venting, I would expect that if this were a cave that is warmer than the surface. The top middle picture and bottom left picture also might show evidence of venting to the north. A few of the pictures have the look of a sand dune lit from the side, but since there are no others around, I doubt that they are dunes. And about things being stronger on Mars... no way. Less gravity, rarified atmosphere... they are much more likely to be less vigorous.

Caves on Mars

Lilly, NJ — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:39:00 GMT

I'm not what one would call a skeptic, but that last picture looks embarassingly fake.

However, the concept is very interesting. I give a lot of credit to those brave enough to explore unknown caves... I sure as hell am too terrified to consider it. Who knows what the hell is down there?

Caves on Mars

B Reid, Halifax, NS — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:16:43 GMT

Quite an interesting article. It is well known that geological formations can occur very uniformally...Look at snowflakes for instance - A naturally occuring, uniform object. I look forward to further exploration of these phenomena

Caves on Mars

Jim, Los Angeles CA — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:46:40 GMT

To Chris E, those 'puffy domes' are craters-- depressions in the surface. Notice they are dark on the left (shadows) and lighter on the right and the sun is shining from the left. Venting-no- it is probably material flowing into the opening.

Albert A. Sinkholes in Florida are commonly circular. When a cave collapses and the overburden (sand, dust, gravel) is loose, even if the cave opening is irregular, the surface feature will be circular

Caves on Mars

Michael — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:09:58 GMT

They are naturally occurring. Perhaps they can provide shelter for those exploring and hopefully colonizing.

If there is sufficient water away from the poles it will be much easier and less costly to explore and colonize the planet. Perhaps there is not only water there but sufficient liquid water to allow colonization to proceed much sooner than thought.

Caves on Mars

Timmy Soupmanson, Altoona PA — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:12:03 GMT

SWEET! now if we can figure out a way to "fly" Pelosi and H.Clinton to Mars and throw them in the Hole.......

Caves on Mars

Mars — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:59:36 GMT

Check out this website

http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/
evidence-directories/9-master/master-directory.htm

These have been known for years and they are just letting us know now. They have pics of geysers with water shooting out, rivers and lakes. Check it out.

Caves on Mars

Charles Cady, Pheonix, Arizona — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:51:30 GMT

What marvelous news, prebuilt human habitats perhaps with ice ready for the taking.

Sigh, I get so depressed thinking that I will not live to see humans on Mars.
And what makes this worse is knowing the reason is all political (financial) we could have started then years ago if had wanted to. I was born in 1944 and as a child felt I could get to the planets. Then I had to adjust my thinking and hope for my Sons. Now once again I have hope for my grand kids, or theirs. Each year the NASA schedule for returning to Mars moves out at least two more years. At this rate we will never make it.

Will our politicos be willing to pony up the money for at lest sending smarter more maneuverable robots to check these out? Probably not and not in less than another decade. I envision a flock of robotic spiders tethered in small groups, so that when first one goes over an edge on one of these "Skylights" the others can check it's fall. The dangling spider could look around and if possible cling to and walk down the wall. I mentioned a flock of spiders so that anything that takes out one, will not halt the mission. These could be very small spiders all communicating into one web and transmitting back to the Lander base station.

Caves on Mars

Bob Mrva Laffayette, Co — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:34:01 GMT

I agree with the comment by Wes that since any possible testing for bacteria. etc. would be done by earth methods. which may not work on Mars, NO contact with the probe should be attempeted and it should be left in place to continue tests as more is learned. If anything is found it's native to Mars not Earth.

Caves on Mars

Chris Eldridge, Harrisburg PA — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:44:19 GMT

Thanks for all the help! I now see my "puffy domes" as craters! :) As one possibility that was mentioned above, the circular shape of the sinkholes may just be from an asteroid punching through. The resolution is just so low you can't make out much of an uplifting around those other craters or around the sinkholes if indeed they were caused by an impact. Although the first sinkhole doesn't seem to affect the nearby crater, it may look a lot different up with a higher resolution image.

BTW, if anyone was wondering, I meant ‘scarce info’ from the recon orbiter, not scary... :(

Des, if only they were created by ice! Your comment really had me hopeful of something pretty grand as we do know now of lots of underground ice.

[From Alan: I went ahead and revised "scare/scary" to "scarce" in the original comment]

Caves on Mars

Marty Matthews, San Jose, CA — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 22:23:26 GMT

The first question that comes to mind is, "Why have these not filled with Martian dust?". Maybe they are recent events, geologically speaking. And does the higher temp indicate a warm thermal core?

Caves on Mars

Port Chester — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 22:27:28 GMT

Geez...good for the Martians, that they have caves. I hope they have sharp, pointy teeth too, to greet the pushy and domineering humans that will inevitably make extinct any life that may dwell there. Call me cynical, but I have a personal rule about seeking new life in...caves. Or seeking...anything that obviously doesn't want to be molested (hence the CAVES, guys). I do hope hope they like fresh human meat.

Caves on Mars

Gardner C. — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:14:01 GMT

There is much the public doesn't know about structures on both Mars and our Luna. The question is: when will the US govt unveil the mask of secrecy? This concerns not only the present day struggle of the NWO against manipulative extra-terestrial powers, but our history as a race, and our future survival as a society.

Remember this: believe only half of what you see, and nothing of what you hear. Most of what goes on around us is a cosmic illusion, but our free will and love for the universe may provide enough clarity to save us yet.

Caves on Mars

Astrochronic — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:59:05 GMT

You know Port Chester you can advocate human inquisitive restraint without the nihilistic rhetoric. Don't be so anti-human, its self defeating. Unless of course you are some interstellar alien insurgent. LOL

Caves on Mars

Gregory, Phoenix Arizona — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:44:04 GMT

"Why were you guys able to go to the moon in 5 yrs and now it takes decades to get anything done?"

Because they didn't go to the moon, they went to Nevada

Caves on Mars

Kyle, Easton, Pennsylvania. — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 17:25:33 GMT

Gregory, we call that "ignorance".

Caves on Mars

James Kelly — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:08:20 GMT

Hey there i had this dream last nite where i was in this cave with a friend and i found a large fosilized egg. after opening it it looked like a baby being of some sort definitely not human but had some nomad characteristics.

after that i did a google search on recent discovered cave's and found this website i don't know if the dream has anything to do with mars caves but it could be something to consider

Caves on Mars

Ed — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 02:21:29 GMT

This is kinda weird. I usually study peoples accounts of being contacted or abducted by beings from other planets. The weirdest one is in a documentary, a woman stated that another being from elsewhere I'll put it for now communicates telepathically with her sometimes. She mentioned at one point this same being thousands of years ago used to frequent Mars along with others and states that we will soon find discoveries on the planet that is just the tip of the iceberg of what they have left behind. She also mentions that currently today this same being along with others use a planet in our solar system outside of Pluto as a hangout spot. People, do you think this is a coincidence so far or just another person due for the funny farm? Tell me your thoughts.

Caves on Mars

Bruno Stanek, Switzerland — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 16:03:15 GMT

Until I see it confirmed by MRO images I think it's suspicous that these easily faked pics appeared on April 1st...

Caves on Mars

F. David Plummer, Rockland, Maine — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 18:28:12 GMT

Let's hope that the holes are entrances to ancient underground cities under those domes we see near them. Wishfull thinking of course on my part, but what is exploration if we do not dream, and live to see our dreams become reality ?

Caves on Mars

Taki K. Walpole, MA — Mon, 14 May 2007 18:31:45 GMT

These hole-type-structural objects show no purpose for caves. Just and only craters. Moisture made these ojects to be known as 'craters'. The transparent lights are just like shadows or from the light above Mars.

Caves on Mars

Don Pointer, Buckhorn, New Mexico — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:46:37 GMT

In Belize you can see a nice round hole a couple of hundred feet in diameter lying in 80 ft of water. It's the roof of a cavern that has collapsed. The bottom is about 400 feet down. Nice diving, too, swimming among the stalactites at 150 ft. The Mars holes are most likely collapsed volcanic tubes. Either that or alien nests where invaders are being raised to subjugate the Earth.

Caves on Mars

Michael Wiggins, Wisconsin — Tue, 29 May 2007 02:37:12 GMT

You people are silly. Those're entrances to an alien hive, duh.

Caves on Mars

Hussain Almousawi, Muscat Oman — Wed, 30 May 2007 20:18:36 GMT

I agree that such holes on Mars are so exciting. These kind of collapsed surface may exset on earth. I saw one in Oman with water in it along with a kind of strange biological life.It is in an area known as Dhabab on the way from Kurayat to Tywi. My kindest regards

Caves on Mars

Not an idiot, like most of you posters — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 04:42:13 GMT

Those aren't 'puffy domes' ... Those are depressions. Those depressions are nearly the same as the holes, except they didn't break through all the way. Nonetheless, they are all part of the same process. All of these are found on the slopes of the largest volcano in the solar system, by far the largest volcano, olympus mons. Volcanos move lava through tubes and these tubes are often left empty. Some of their ceilings collapsed to form circular depressions, and others with a thinner ceiling collaped to form the holes. They were not dug ... They were not blasted ... They collapsed. The same thing happens here on earth on volcanos. Get a grip ...

Caves on Mars

Dont wanta give it — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 05:21:23 GMT

I would like to see a geological wide angle view to learn if they are all in the same vicinity of each other. Are the more elsewhere? Maybe near the Face of Mars.

Caves on Mars

Emerson Mason, Jefferson City, MO — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 03:23:23 GMT

They are entrances to caves. The caves hold those who survived the catastrophe which ripped the atmosphere off Mars eons ago. the survivors live in a protected environment where there is oxygen, food and warmth. Many of them are held in stasis to conserve that food and water. They are led by an entity named Minyius.

Caves on Mars

Mike Davies — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 04:27:34 GMT

Can Oddy penetrate one of the Martian sisters?

Caves on Mars

Thats not good — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:59:25 GMT

Seven=7
Sisters=7
all the letters in the names=34
3+4=7

Caves on Mars

Terry — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:59:52 GMT

It is mans ability to dream of exploration that sets us apart from other life forms. It would be wonderfull to find a long lost city under Mars,and even if there is no such thing,to explore Mars if for nothing else,to learn.

Caves on Mars

Ryan Libster — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:47:34 GMT

I have to ask this question. What do you think will happen sooner? Us getting to Mars or the war in Iraq ending? We'd probably be there already if every dollar spent towards it was being spent towards an expedition to Mars. LOL I AM BUSH! LETS GET PEOPLE BACK TO THE MOON IN 2020 AND EXPECT US TO GET TO MARS ONLY 17 YEARS LATER IN 2037. It's not happening. We aren't finding out what's in those caves anytime soon or whether the face in the Cydonia region has any significance to it. Maybe I'll try to propose some idea for light travel.