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Large Caves Found on the Surface of Mars
David DelMonte writes "Space.com is reporting on the discovery of seven dark spots near the Equator on Mars. The thinking is that these are cave openings. The openings are the size of football fields, and one of them is thought to extend approximately 400 feet below the surface.'The researchers hope the discovery will lead to more focused spelunking on Mars. "Caves on Mars could become habitats for future explorers or could be the only structures that preserve evidence of past or present microbial life ," said Glenn Cushing of Northern Arizona University, who first spotted the black areas in the photographs.'"
Why does the article keep switching back and forth between "we think they might be caves" and "we're certain they really are caves"? Let me know when they've made up their minds about whether or not they've made up their minds, and I'll start caring about these (possible) caves.
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We know Venus has mountains and valleys. We know Mars has mountains and valleys.
Should be at all surprised to find caves on Mars?
I thought we already believed that all solid planets had plate activity like Earth, that formed the mountains and valleys. Aren't caves a natural extension of that thought process?
I thought this was a given.
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... they're where the Martians store all their canal-boats till next thaw.
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> Caves on Mars could become habitats for future explorers...
Does anyone else find it slightly amusing that as humans move out into space we may yet again end up living in caves?
What if the entire Universe were a chrooted environment with everything symlinked from the host?
Mars has no global magnetic field to deflect solar radiation which means that when humans go there they will be exposed to alot of deadly radiation- if we want to stay on mars we need a place that is safe- caves are one such place. they shield agaisnt radiation and make it easier to build habitats. this discovery could allow humans to colonize mars.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
...said Glenn Cushing of Northern Arizona University, who first spotted the black areas in the photographs. "Uh oh, looks like someone smudged the photo."*rubs finger on photo*
"Hmm. Guess they're caves, then."
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Part of the symbolism of the space baby at the end of the movie is that people are masters of the Earth, but we're infants in space. We're vulnerable, and have to learn and practice even simple things like moving from one end of the spacecraft to the other in a spacesuit. We wear diapers up there.
If we're going to be on Mars, it is therefore fitting that we should be cavemen. That's where we started, and that's where we will start again.
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Holes? In the ground?
crap.
Don't confuse a propaganda campaign by NASA with what scientists actually think. Nobody working in the field is the least surprised by caves on Mars. But NASA need to make press releases and hype them up a bit. And anyway, caves on Mars are cool.
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we thought that Earth was the center of the universe, that the sun revolved around Earth
I really wish people would stop telling these lies. The Earth *is* the center of the universe, and the sun *does* revolve around the Earth. If you're talking about other planets or galaxies it's not necessary a handy reference point, but there's no technical reason that you can't define Earth as the origin in any coordinate system. Similarly it's just as accurate to say that the sun revolves around Earth as it is to say that Earth revolves around the sun; the sun and Earth revolve around each other, and anything more specific only expresses a frame a reference, not a technical truth.
The only part people ever got wrong was the the movement of other planets; there were models that showed other planets in revolution around Earth, and those were inaccurate (and quickly discovered to be so as soon as the technology existed to measure the inaccuracies in the predicted orbits of the planets). But in a time before access to high-quality optics it's not entirely unreasonable to suppose that distant non-star objects you observe behave in the same way as the sun and the moon -- that they also revolve around the Earth.
I won't argue the "earth was flat" point (much) for the moment, as there were at least some people at some point in history who believed that. Not many people who actually studied the subject, at least not since some year that ended with "BC", but there were some people in the Early Middle Ages who argued for a flat-earth model, and their belief was wrong, so it's a better point than the first two, even if it's based on a misunderstanding of history.
And while religion does may bad (fight about stupid things) and good things (organize society in the absence of stable political powers), they can't be blamed for your misunderstanding of astronomy or history, so maybe you should lay off.
There are solutional caves - caves formed by water - and there are lava-tube caves - caves (lava tubes, actually) formed by molten rock. When molten lava cools around other hotter lava, the hotter lava travels around the cooler, more solid, lava and sometimes drains out enough to create a pocket of, well, emptiness. Often times, lava tubes are not discovered until the ground gives way and opens into a pit to access the tube. Hawaii has lots of Lava tubes as do many areas near volcanoes.
On Earth, the ground breaks up due to water-action and other biological means (animals, bacteria, humans, etc...). I'm sure on Mars there's another method to break open a lava tube...sandblasting due to a large storm on Mars' surface and the occasional meteorite.
It's no surprise that Mars has caves - it makes sense. Whether or not those caves are solutional is what is important here.
Actually, "spelunking" isn't really used in that way (at least in the USA) by people who regularly explore caves; "caving" is the preferred term.
For reasons that aren't completely clear, "spelunker" has come to mean "person who goes in caves without proper equipment or training" among American cavers. (At caving conventions, you'll see bumper stickers that read "Cavers Rescue Spelunkers".)
See Wikipedia for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caving
For more info in general (at least on USA caving), check out the website of the National Speleological Society: http://www.caves.org/
or the chat forum, http://www.cavechat.org/
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