Wow! Check out this new Mars image

[tridim]

This is all very Arthur C. Clarke-ish IMO. What's in that bottomless pit? What's holding up the overhanging edges?

Wide shot..


Closeup..


NASA's commentary:

This is not an impact crater as it lacks a raised rim or ejecta. What's amazing is that we cannot see any detail in the shadow! The cutout shows this dark spot and a version that is "stretched" to best see the darkest area, yet we still cannot see details except noise (1380x782, 1 MB).

The HiRISE camera is very sensitive and we can see details in almost any shadow on Mars, but not here. We also cannot see the deep walls of the pit. The best interpretation is that this is a collapse pit into a cavern or at least a pit with overhanging walls. We cannot see the walls because they are either perfectly vertical and extremely dark or, more likely, overhanging.

http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/PSP/diafotizo.php?ID=PSP_003647_1745

[NYC]

1. What's the white stuff?

This looks like a sheet of paper with a hole poked in it.

[tridim]

The white stuff is the surface of Mars, the hole is ?

I've been looking at it for awhile now and I have no clue. It looks very unreal.

My gawd, it's full of stars!

[NYC]

5. What is full of stars?

I guess I'm having trouble figuring out what I'm looking at. I see the hole, but that's all.

It really does look like a sheet of paper to me.

Thanks for answering my question earlier.

[tridim]

6. "My gawd It's full of stars" is a sci-fi joke, sorry to mislead.

You're looking at a satellite image of the surface of Mars. The images are rectangular because that's the limit of the data the camera can "see". Check out the whole site, it's nifty!

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

[NYC]

9. Thanks.

I guess I would have done better if they had trimmed the edges.

I got stuck on the image of a piece of paper with a hole poked by a 6mm pencil. Can't be helped.

Snow? It looks like snow.

I'm going to the link now. Thanks again.

[TechBear_Seattle]

40. It is from Arthur C. Clarke's book, "2010: Odyssey Two"

According to the revised history of "2010" (different in several details from the actual storyline of "2001"), David Bowman abandoned Discovery after "killing" HAL and used a jet pack to physically inspect the Monolith. He keeps up a verbal transmission to Discovery, which is automatically relayed to Earth. He describes approaching, then descscribes how it seemed to "open up." His final words, before all transmission ceased and Bowman vanished was, "My God! It's full of stars!"

[NYC]

60. Thanks for the update.

I saw the movie with HAL. I'm glad to hear someone killed him. :)

[TechBear_Seattle]

67. It wasn't HAL's fault he went psychotic; it was the government's

As explained in "2010," he had two mutually exclusive sets of orders.

Officially, Discovery was on a simple mission of exploration, the first manned voyage to Jupiter (actually, it was Saturn in the book version of "2001", but the director was unable to make a realistic model of Saturn and so changed the destination to Jupiter.) Under that set of orders, HAL was a vital part of the crew with the directive to obtain information, analyze it and report the data and analysis fully and accurately to the human members of the crew.

It was nearing launch when the monolith recently discovered on the Moon sent a tightbeam message to Jupiter (Saturn in the first book.) The government decided to direct Discovery to investigate, as it would take at least a decade to build and outfit a second mission. David Bowman and Frank Poole, who would be awake for the whole journey out, could not be notified of the change in mission, as they were very much public figures constantly being interviewed by the media; the government dare not give them information that might slip. The hybernating crew was notified of the change, and in a few cases replaced, just before beign put into the long sleep. HAL was reprogrammed with the new mission parameters and was given strict orders not to tell Bowman or Poole of these changes.

As they neared Jupiter, these conflicting orders began literally to conflict in HAL's "brain." He had no choice but to convey all information about the mission to the human members of the crew, and had no choice NOT to tell the human crew about the mission. Eventually, HAL realized that if there were no human members of the crew, there would be no conflict between his two sets of orders. He was incapable of murder, so the resolution to his conflict was to "allow accidents" to occur -- power fluctuations in the hybernation coffins, a short in the guidance system of the pod flown by Poole, a jam in the communications antenna when Bowman tried to alert Earth that HAL was going nuts -- and then wipe his memory of being responsible for these "accidents."

In short, HAL was just as much a victim as the rest of the crew.

[NYC]

68. Okay, I relent.

I take it back. Though I seemed to remember that HAL needed killin'. :)

[Cobalt-60]

69. well he got it

Then they rebooted him, minus the psychosis.
Im glad to hear that a mainframe from my Alma Mater was back online.

[NYC]

70. A happy ending.

:)

[Cobalt-60]

71. they have a birthday party for him every year at U of I

(Illinois)

[JDPriestly]

26. Looks like a paper towel with a hole in it to be precise.

[NYC]

61. It's those perforated edges.

A paper towel was the first thing that struck me. The moon is made of blue cheese, and Mars is made of paper towels. Oh, well.

[whopis01]

63. You are missing the point!

It is a picture of a paper towel with a hole in it that was taken on Mars!

Who has paper towels on Mars? And why are they poking holes in them?

Personally, I think it is an alien life form trying to communicate with us, but as anyone who has tried to write on a paper towel with a pencil knows, it is really hard to do.

[NYC]

79. No, no, it's the eclipse.

We all know never to stare into the sun. So, to see a solar eclipse, you cut a hole in a piece of paper (paper towel, if you are on Mars), let the sun shine through the hole, and observe the shadows on the ground.

Therefore, we can conclude that at the time of this image, there was a total solar eclipse.

Mystery solved. All it took was a little discussion. Paper towels can go back in the kitchen.

[whopis01]

82. Upon further observation...

I believe that we are looking in the wrong direction. These small, circular, dark holes on the surface of Mars are indicative of a giant magnifying glass in orbit between Mars and the Sun.

[NYC]

85. Now, I'm worried.

Should I start carrying a parasol? Who's holding the magnifying glass? Will I need more sunscreen?

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Looks like it's funding time for NASA again. Better trot out the promise

of a better life on other planets.

[Captain Angry]

3. That's intense!

You know that somebody is trying to figure out rotation/sun position/satellite position/camera position so that if there is a time in the future that the conditions align, they can take a better look.

That's wild!

Man, if we could stop wasting our money on war, and fix some domestic issues, we could go full blast into major exploration.

If I die before we have non-scientists living in space or on another planet, I'll be terribly disappointed. I saw Star Wars when I was four, and have been dreaming about it ever since.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. What kind of cavern? A lavatube?

I don't think there's the possibility of a "solution" cave on Mars as there's probably no limestone or dolomite (which would indicate the presence of ancient life) for the formation of a sinkhole and it would also require the abundance of water.

There are very long and complex lava caves on planet Earth, but usually when the roof collapses, it forms a hole that is longer than it is round. But then you wonder what kind of cave that flowing lava could make when there is less gravity and less air pressure.

Maybe it involves a small meteorite having impacted a large lava tube cave so that this isn't the natural collapse of a cave roof but instead the combination of a meteorite having impact on the roof of a large cave.

Thanks for posting this. This looks pretty strange.

[tridim]

8. Here's what collapse pits look like in the same area

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

12. I'm not sure what the term "collapse pit" means

but here is a photo of what the entrance to a lava cave on Earth can look like.

http://bulgar.no-ip.info/downloads/snimki/wall/Lava%20Tube%20Cave,%20Lava%20Beds%20National%20Monument,%20Tulelake,%20California.jpg

I believe that lava caves form when lava flows downhill and the upper layers and sides cool but the middle remains liquid and continues flowing, leaving behind a cavity. Lava tubes can extend for miles, have complex intersecting structures, and be hundreds of feet deep, such as the amazing lava caves on Hawaii. I'll bet Mars, with its lower gravity has allowed the development of underground caverns of monumental proportions.

This looks like what you proposed in your post, a hole in the top of a large cavern. My surprise is that it is so nearly round, hence my feeling that it might involve a meteor hitting a cavern roof which would result in perhaps a round shape and the overhanging edges of the pit.

[tridim]

15. Nice! I'd like to hang out there for a while.

BTW I didn't propose any theory, NASA did.

I keep thinking the surrounding surface would be cracked and pitted if this hole was just a punch out in the roof of a giant cave. The crust appears as if it should be very thin, and if so there would be more holes and erosion (note the typical crater to the upper-right that didn't punch through). Logic tells me that that pit is very deep with vertical walls, but what would cause that? A vent of some sort?

[TheMadMonk]

22. Nice. I want one at the bottom of the garden.

[byronius]

72. Oooooo that is so damn cool.

Stole that picture, lemmetellya.

[RC]

30. Lava Tubes on Kauai.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

41. Kazumura Cave on the big island of Hawaii is over 40 miles long

and reaches a depth of over 3,600 feet. Exploration of it continues.

[Nictuku]

42. OMG

I used to live just down the road from that cave. The end of the road is my favorite place on earth (that I've been to, that is)

Thanks for the memories, I recognized it the instant I saw it.

[EST]

7. A belly button.

Sure would be neat if Mars didn't obviously mass as much as a planet normally should. It'd be nice to speculate that it's one big-ass space ship, abandoned, of course, and this was an inadvertent break through into the skin.

Of course, who says such a space faring machine shouldn't mass, or appear to mass as much as one would expect? Having to simulate volcanoes would be a pest, but that's no longer necessary.
There was a science fiction story, from fifty years ago, Heinlein, I think, in which they discovered that one of the Martian moons was, in fact, a disguised ship, abandoned.

I don't recall how the tale turned out, but it seems like they learned to run the ship. However, the operation of said ship alerted its owners and they came arunnin'.

Maybe that's where they used to put their flag.

[muriel_volestrangler]

46. Mars' mass will have been known for years, by observing its moons

You can work out anything's mass if you can see the distance and period of a satellite.

Me, I think it's a hole for a game of Brockian ultra-golf. :)

[krispos42]

10. THAT'S where the WMD's are!

We just can't, you know, um, see them. But we can't prove they aren't there!

On a more serious note, I wonder if there might be an old underground lake or sea that that hole goes down to. Might be frozen solid with life in it! It would be protected from the above-freezing temperatures and warming solar radiation.

[Forkboy]

11. By jove,I do believe we've discovered Mars' asshole!

[jeff30997]

14. Too bad we can't name it Dubya...

The name's already taken for Earth's asshole.

[Forkboy]

28. LMAO

Perfect comeback! :rofl:

[MisterP]

13. if it's Clarkean...

it must be a plot hole!

[tridim]

16. Psst.. His books are supplemental to his films.

They're required reading. :)

[MisterP]

17. required for what?

and how's a weird tunnel on a Martian plateau "Clarke"?
Why not Lem?

[tridim]

18. It's Clarke because the pit is "blacker than black" like the monoliths.

It's late, sorry. :)

[Jamastiene]

19. This kind of gives creedence to those people who think the

moon landing was fake. I don't care what anyone says, I can do the same picture with a sheet of matte textured paper and a hole puncher. :rofl:

Give me a link to NASA's actual web site and I'll believe it.

[tridim]

20. The image is directly from the NASA/JPL/HiRISE website, it's real.

http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/PSP/diafotizo.php?ID=PSP_003647_1745

[Jamastiene]

31. Cheers. I was joking.

:P It does look like a piece of paper with texture on it though, does it not? :D

[TheMadMonk]

21. That hole ain't empty.

Take a look in the scallop at around 11:40. Does that look a bit like an island to anyone? In fact there are a number of "islands" along the upper rim.

The "cuttoff" line appears to be on the same contour. Which means either the roof of the cavern was dead flat or a nearly mathematically perfect dome pierced dead centre. Both seem highly unlikely to me.

So does the thought of a free liquid on Mars, but apart from that impossibility, it seems to offer the simplest explanation for what we can see.

Even the "Enhanced HOLE" pic supports the liquid idea. Blow it up in an image viewer and it looks remarkably like "shallows" around the edge, deepening towards the middle.

Going back to the enlarge image on the left, look at the contrast between the sun facing rock faces at the top and the bottom, and the sun facing right hand rim. Whereas we can see detail at the top and bottom of the "hole", the right hand rim is massively overexposed. Almost as if it were receiving a hefty dose of light reflected from some surface.



(edited to add: )

It appears to me that the sun is low in the sky, to the south-west of the image (assuming north is to the top).

This is just too Effing weird for words.

[tridim]

23. Neat! Also note that the whole thing is only about 150m wide.

So those pools would only be about about 5m across, and the shoreline only about 5m high.

If it's a liquid, wouldn't we see some reflections? It's like it's absorbing light.. Hence my original monolith comparison. If it's liquid wouldn't there be some more erosion around the rim from flooding?

This image continues to freak me out. It's really cool.

[TheMadMonk]

24. Consider the angles mate.

If it's dead flat, which is probable given the lack of wind and tidal forces on Mars, then all you will see is the reflected (DARK) zenith (or close to it) given the angle at which the pic was taken.


Looks at it from various angles, particularly one that comes close to reflecting the sun (without damaging the instruments preferably), will be needed to get a solid idea of what the hell this is. A shot with the sun behind the camera would help reveal if it's a cavern.

[tridim]

25. You're right. Here's a lake on Earth..

Very similar, but still different for some reason. It's the blackness and roundness that is odd, and the fact that Mars is too cold for liquid water. There is wind on mars however. We've already seen dust devils and wind driven dunes.

[TheMadMonk]

27. That's a sunlit Earth image with a much higer sun than the Mars image..

Even so, notice how dark the reflected sky is? The reflected Martian sky would be black. And subtract the clouds. Or better still hope for some on Mars.

The similarities are still very eerie though.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

49. I don't think those are islands or pools

They look like ledges to me, protruding from beneath overhangs. In other words, the top edges of the pit sheered off at a slight angle, with some of the rock further down crumbling away to a greater extent and leaving an indentation, while slightly further below, more resistent rock left a shelf. I think we are seeing a shadow between an upper part of the crust and the shelf a bit lower down. There can be different consistencies and densities of lava in a lava flow, which might account for this irregularity in the rock in the way it crumbles away.

To me, it still looks consistent with a very large and deep lava tube with a shallow roof that was struck by a small meteorite at great speed. The ejecta from impact with a thin roof of a cavern would have been slight at the moment of impact, as the meteorite did not encounter resistance with a solid surface, while most of the ejecta would be further down in what might be a rather deep cave. I think there might be an impact crater at the very bottom of that hole, inside the cave itself and on the cave floor, with ejecta trapped inside the walls of the lava tube itself. That's just my take.

[tridim]

53. Wouldn't the blast pressure from the impact within the cave..

crack the thin crust around the punched out hole? The scale of that image tells us the crust is only about 5m thick. Unless the cave is many km deep and wide there would certainly be more crust damage. A 100m meteor would have massive amounts of energy released on impact. The edges are just too crisp.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

56. My guess is that the meteorite would be rather small (10 metres or less?)

and would have initially and on impact punched out a much smaller hole than the one we now see in the cavern roof. What we are seeing is part of the blast that was directed upward and around in the interior of the lava tube as a result of a second impact with the cavern floor. (imagine a thin floor a couple hundred feet above every typical roundish impact crater that we CAN see of the same size and what the impact below would have done to the floor above) Of course this is pure speculation on my part. A direct hit from a small meteorite on the central part of a large lava tube would be quite fortuitous and probably a rare event. But then I don't think this type of hole has been seen anywhere else on Mars, has it?

If that explanation makes no sense, there just may be something strange that goes on in volcanic rock in an environment where there is less air pressure and less gravity. Although volcanic gases do not form lava tubes on Earth, then can accompany them. Maybe there are large gas bubbles that form inside of lava tubes on Mars that can burst through the roof as the cave forms, because of the factors of reduced gravity and air pressure.

That thing still looks strange as Hell.

[tridim]

58. Still doesn't explain why it's almost perfectly round

and 10m meteorites don't make 150m punched out holes, just like a bullet doesn't make a larger hole when it hits a paper target. If it was a 150m meteor it would have produced multi-megatons of energy. I still think the impact would have collapsed the entire "ceiling" of the bubble regardless of the size.

Maybe it was a Death Star laser test shot? :)

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

64. No - that's not what I'm saying

I'm saying that a 10 metre or so meteorite would make a smaller hole when it punched through the roof of the cavern. The larger hole would be the result of the same meteorite hitting the bottom of the cavern and throwing up debris all around. I think usually that circle of debris, as with many meteor craters, is rather round. Relatively small meteorites make large craters when they impact. The size of the crater is usually many times the size of the object that originally hit.

[Peace Patriot]

29. IF the "light" we're seeing at the 12-3 o'clock position on the "rim" is sunlight,

what's preventing some of that sunlight from splashing into the "black hole" and lighting up some of its features along that "rim" inside the "black hole"? You just don't see "blackness" like this, in this kind of configuration, where there doesn't seem to be anything obstructing the sunlight. But perhaps some quality of the surface material is fooling our eye--creating an optical illusion. Perhaps sunlight is not hitting this feature in the way that we would logically think. I've seen some strange things in the planetary exploration photos. Nothing like this. I do see the small "islands" at the upper edges of the "rim," which makes one think of a lake. Aside from that, I am at a loss. It's the damnedest thing I ever saw--from Mars or anywhere else.

I don't understand the surrounding white, ripply surface, that the "black hole" is punched into. Are we looking at a typical Mars surface of sand, sand drifts and rocks--fuzzy because of the distance the photo was taken at? Or "frost" or "snow"? Or what? It's impossible to get any kind of visual sense of what the "black hole" could be, because there are no rocks, mountains, ridges, typical craters or other features to orient your eye to what the "light" is revealing at the edges of the "black hole".

[Peace Patriot]

32. Got an answer on the surface material, from the NASA site...

"...bright dusty lava plain to the northeast of Arsia Mons, one of the four giant Tharsis volcanoes."

http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/PSP/diafotizo.php?ID=PSP_003647_1745

"Dusty lava plain" with thin crust surface? Doesn't help much really.

[Peace Patriot]

33. I just noticed a feature on the original photo (not the blow-up). The "black hole"

has a white "tail" extending to the north. Looks kind of like a black comet with a white tail. Could that swath of whiter white (the "tail") have anything to do with this weird hole? NASA says the "black hole" is not a crater (no ejecta--although, what if something had covered over the ejecta? the "dust" of the "dusty lava plain," or something else? could violent winds, huge dust storm, erase evidence of a crater, a meteor that hit a thin crusty lava surface above some kind of bubble cavern under the surface, and sank in deep?).

From the NASA site: Distance of photo to object was 157.8 miles, taken from the Orbiter. North is up. Sun at about 38 degrees above the horizon. The scene is illuminated from the west, at local Mars time of 3:27 PM (May 7, 2007). Northern Autumn on Mars.

[Peace Patriot]

35. Or, did something hit Mars that was NOT a crater....say, a small black hole?

or some other kind of unusual phenomenon? I started thinking about old cartoons with Bugs Bunny or some character riding a rocket to the Moon, and crashing into it nose first. Well, what if somebody out there was traveling around in an anti-matter powered ship, or some other fancy-dancy, "superior intelligence"-type vehicle, checking out Sol and the local color, and...oops!...they were forced to eject their anti-matter chamber, or some worse catastrophe befell them, and they blew a hole in Mars--with some energy source or mechanism beyond our comprehension, that leaves a neat "hole" that light cannot escape from. The apparent "islands" at the upper edge of the "rim" could be optical illusions (not lava rock sitting in a liquid, but a trick of shadows). It is the interior blackness that is the puzzle. Not a hint of a shape.

I know what it is! I know what it is! It's KURT VONNEGUT's EXIT HOLE!

[Peace Patriot]

36. I swear to God, as I was posting this thought about Kurt Vonnegut, Firefox

STOPPED ME from posting it, and said, "This document has no data." I had to post it via "preview." I've never seen that statement before from Firefox, or DU's system, or whoever is running things. "This document has no data." Kurt is plumb out of data, and has entered (or created?) the black hole on Mars!

[TheMadMonk]

34. Reverse the light path.

the slope of the "banks" is far shallower than the angle the camera makes with any point inside the rim. There is nothing to reflect.

As I've already said, we need views from different angles.

This is weirder than weird.

[tridim]

38. Maybe NASA doesn't want us to see what's really there?

So they blacked it out.

It's about the only logical explanation I can come up with, which of course makes me a tin-foil hat wearing kook, right?

[Nictuku]

43. Lets Hope it is Not Crude Oil

[IndyOp]

52. Let's hope it IS crude oil -- Dick Cheney and his minions will be on

space ships tomorrow! Away! Away! We can build the star wars defense system while they are gone and then they won't be able to return...

:bounce:

[tridim]

54. Oil on Mars would mean past organic life.

Let's hope it is oil! There's no way for BushCo to get it, so we're safe.

[Ediacara]

37. If this were on Earth, this would be IDed as a pond w/o a second thought

At about 12 o'clock there are several features that appear to be islands, and at about three o'clock there are at least three talus cones or alluvial fans. That being said, it does look as though it was created by a collapse of the surrounding topography. The big question is, what is this totally non-reflective black liquid (if it is actually a non-reflective black liquid)? Is there something that would fool the satellite into seeing "bottomless pit" rather than pond?

[tridim]

39. Well it's morning and I'm still fascinated.. More black holes discussed here..

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

They seem to think these holes are collapsed cavern entrances, but I'm still not convinced at all.

[Peace Patriot]

47. "Holes?" There are more? nt

"They seem to think these holes are collapsed cavern entrances, but I'm still not convinced at all."--tridim

I will go to the url you suggest.

[Peace Patriot]

48. Yup, 7 holes! Check it out.

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

[MLFerrell]

44. That's where the Nazi UFOs are based...

A 118 year-old Hitler is leading them on a quest for Martian domination. Mengele's ghost is their ideological father, and they worship an unexploded nuclear bomb.

:)

[TalkingDog]

45. What's yer point? Andy Goldsworthy makes better holes than that.

And a lot more of them too.

http://www.goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk/image/?tid=1977_370

With the angle of the sun, it would be very difficult to see into a complete shadow. No mystery there.

However, the lovely symmetry of the hole and lack of ejecta is very puzzling.

[muriel_volestrangler]

50. The page says the sun was about 38 degrees above the horizon

which means the hole must be very deep, with an abrupt overhanging edge at least on the upper right hand side, opposite the sun. Or there is an incredibly non-reflective material there (or perfectly smooth so that all the reflected sunlight goes in a different direction than to the camera). The page says the camera is very sensitive.

[TalkingDog]

62. yes, but this is some sand on a beach.

Quoth Goldsworthy: "I crawled out and at the top was this little hole, which was so black..."


My point is: Holes are black. No mystery. No light equals nothing to see. Basic physics.

The utter lack of cast shadow on the dark side of the rim indicates that the direction of the light is not at such an angle as to allow any light to shine into (or be reflected from the sides of the hole mouth into) the space below. (I am agreeing here that it is likely a deep hole....)

The non-reflective substance? Thin air and space.

Again: I do agree that the symmetry and lack of ejecta (and 7 of them at that) are more perplexing.


We shouldn't make a mountain out of a mole hole.

Holes happen.

[Canuckistanian]

51. That's spooky

The HiRISE Camera is very sensitive. I find it incredible that NO detail could be found in the hole's image.

Either the "hole" is remarkably deep or it's filled with some substance which reflects no visible light.

BTW, this is the same camera that spotted the Viking Lander (a mission from the 70's) and the more recent Spirit/Rover vehicles on the surface.

[Peace Patriot]

55. Okay, here's what's not adding up. NASA says these are not craters (no ejecta).

The planetary society says they are "skylights" to deep caverns. Presumably, there is a thin lava surface over a very deep bubble underneath (cavern), and the surface material collapsed. The bottom of the cavern is so deep that no light can reach it, to highlight its features. Say that's true--that that explains the "black hole" aspect. But what explains the roundness of the hole? And, particularly, what explains it SEVEN TIMES? Random chance might give you a round hole, but 7 of them?

And why did they collapse? An earthquake? Some other violent geological event? But that would likely produce an uneven collapse--cracks, fissures, jagged edges. This is almost perfectly round, 7 times over. And there is nothing around it to suggest any violent cause.

Where have I seen something like this before? It reminds me of the neck of a balloon. A vent of some kind. I'm thinking of a sea of bubbling lava, suddenly freezing, and an air hole opens to vent gases. Another image: a rubber tire that gets punched by a nail, then the nail is withdrawn.

But seven times over? That is more of a puzzle than the utter blackness.

A friend of mine thinks it's the Tar Pit Monster that swallowed Tasha Yar! That, and Kurt Vonnegut's ghost (my contribution), seem like the best explanations yet. Although Tasha Yar's and Kurt Vonnegut's deaths each happened only once (that we know of). (--and only one of them was real.)

Also, the Bush White House comes to mind. And the black hole into which real news and real political analysis is sent. This would be the "Dorian Gray" syndrome.* With every whopping lie, a black hole opens up on Mars "in sympathy" with the evil on Earth.

----------------------

*(Oscar Wilde story, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," in which a man remains young, and gets very rich and evil, while an oil painting portrait of him--which he keeps veiled and hidden from others--changes, showing his increasing decrepitude and dissolution. The portrait shows the true state of his soul.)

[Elidor]

87. The roundness of the holes could be explained by...oh, what's the term

All the geology people who explore caves around here talk about it, it's the basic process that cavers call 'breakdown,' where rock peels away from the ceiling bit by bit, forming concentric spheroid shapes. When the void left by the breakdown reaches the surface, you sometimes get nice round holes in the ground. Other times you get sinkholes.

Frankly, I think it's the door to a massive spaceship parked underground. Someone call Gary Sinise.

[Peace Patriot]

57. The holes heat up at night.

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

[progressoid]

59. It's a fake. Just like the moon landing.

Somebody poked a hole in a piece of paper and took a snapshot of it.







must I add this? :sarcasm:

[krkaufman]

65. I can't say what it is, but I cenrtainly wouldn't ...

... fly the Millenium Falcon into it.

[tridim]

66. Best answer yet!

Hahaha! :rofl:

[Forkboy]

76. LMAO

:thumbsup:

[byronius]

73. So cool. A valuable post. Thanks.

[jimlup]

74. Strategic Oil Reserve for the aliens!

[dweller]

75. if you look really, really close at that closeup shot, you'll see

an eye !!!


:P

dp

[FogerRox]

77. Hardly like this one.

[FogerRox]

78. Or this un

[jimlup]

80. Scale?

What is the true scale of this thing? How many meters across?

Seems like a deep lava vent tube... an interesting one but still.

[muriel_volestrangler]

81. Scroll to the right in the OP - it's about 150m in diameter (n/t)

[jimlup]

84. Thanks!

Thanks! Geez, I can't believe I missed that. Lava vent tube? Maybe some dark material forms the walls and doesn't show as detail giving the ghostly cavern appearence. Or maybe it is a cavern but it is surprising that it hasn't collapsed. I'd be interested in a NASA link for this ... I didn't see one but didn't look that hard. If I find one I'll post or repost it.

Regards

[Sequoia]

83. That's where the space ships fly in and out to the city below.

Doncha guys watch Star Trek?

[Leo 9]

86. It's a skylight for one of the Ballrooms Of Mars

Ballrooms Of Mars
by T-Rex
album:

You gonna look fine
Be primed for dancing
You're gonna trip and glide
All on the trembling plane
Your diamond hands
Will be stacked with roses
And wind and cars
And people of the past

I'll call you thing
Just when the moon sings
And place your face in stone
Upon the hill of stars
And gripped in the arms
Of the changeless madman
We'll dance our lives away
In the Ballrooms of Mars

You talk about day
I'm talking 'bout night time
When the monsters call out
The names of men
Bob Dylan knows
And I bet Alan Freed did
There are things in night
That are better not to behold

You dance
With your lizard leather boots on
And pull the strings
That change the faces of men
You diamond browed hag
You're a gutter-gaunt gangster
John Lennon knows your name
And I've seen his


http://www.lyricsbox.com/t-rex-lyrics-ballrooms-of-mars-1cmn1jb.html

[TupperHappy]

88. Mars is a giant bowling ball

...and these are the finger holes.

;-D