Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

7th Graders Find Large Cave On Mars

Posted by timothy on from the ok-now-rhyme-something-with-uranus dept.

A newly discovered cave on Mars was found as the result of an interesting crowdsourcing project. As EMB Numbers writes, "CNET news reports that 'the science class from Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., found the opening while working on a research project with the Mars Space Flight Facility run out of Arizona State University in Tempe. ... The students examined more than 200 images of Mars taken with the Thermal Emission Imaging System (Themis), an instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.' The only other similar opening near the volcano was found in 2007, when Glen Cushing, a scientist with the US Geological Survey, published a research paper on the surface anomalies. The opening is estimated to be 620 by 520 feet and the hole to be at least 380 feet deep."

29 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Just kidding, folks. by clone53421 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I looked at the pictures, and it seems that they had a bug on the lens.

    In all seriousness, though, I wonder how they can determine the depth of the hole, just from the surface characteristics?

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    1. Re:Just kidding, folks. by mea37 · · Score: 4, Informative

      They say "at least"; I'd take that to mean "if it was any less deep than that, we'd see some trace of the bottom".

    2. Re:Just kidding, folks. by PotatoFarmer · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, if you look carefully, you can see two vaguely hand-shaped rock formations to either side of the cave. Scientists have used this information to search for similar images for the purpose of comparison, and have thus come to the conclusion that the cave is approximately "ohgodmyeyes" deep.

    3. Re:Just kidding, folks. by icebike · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why do they call a vertical hole a cave?
      Don't caves typically have roof/ceilings?
      Its just a hole, lava vent.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    4. Re:Just kidding, folks. by Teun · · Score: 4, Informative
      Easy, you know the distance and the angle of the lens so you can calculate the diameter.

      You also know the angle of the sun at the time of the photo and measure the lit (or unlit) area below the hole, that'll give you an approximation of the depth.

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    5. Re:Just kidding, folks. by TinBromide · · Score: 4, Informative

      They were using thermal imaging, not visible light.

      ok, to revise then:

      I would think that by using the image to get the angle of the sun striking the surface of Mars that they could say that if it was any shallower than that the light from the sun would Heat Up part of the bottom of the cave. Therefore since they see no heat from the bottom it must be deeper than the minimum.

      Happy, mister snippy pants?

      --
      Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
  2. Wow by Locke2005 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The opening is estimated to be 620 feet by 520 feet and the hole to be at least 380 feet deep. Wow! That beats even goatse!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:Wow by CTalkobt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The opening is estimated to be 620 feet by 520 feet and the hole to be at least 380 feet deep. Wow! That beats even goatse!

      I'm sure you'll be moderated funny (as you should) ... however if you reach 5 then I'll know others, too - have suffered the same horrible fate I once did. It'll help heal the mental scars I still carry to this day...

      --
      There's a gorilla from Manilla whose a fella that stinks of vanilla and has salmonella.
  3. these kids today by nopainogain · · Score: 5, Funny

    when i was in 7th grade my parents wouldnt even let me go to the pool by myself.. these kids today...with their ipods, their myspaces, and their spelunking visits to mars.. No Seriously, good job.

    1. Re:these kids today by ArsonSmith · · Score: 4, Funny

      Get off my Martian lawn!!

      --
      Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
    2. Re:these kids today by nopainogain · · Score: 5, Funny

      kids dont know hard work today.. when I was their age, we had to watch archive footage of other people visiting other planets...in black and white...because we couldnt afford red planets back then..

    3. Re:these kids today by Kratisto · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And we had to escape gravity wells both ways!

      --
      Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
  4. Re:RTFA... by clone53421 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That was from the University press release, by the way, not the cnet article.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  5. Is this where by GreenSquirrel2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Kuato hid the oxygen generator?

  6. Wow .. Grade 7 has changed by RabidMonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When I was in grade 7 we learned about nothing even remotely as interesting as this. I think we looked at plant cells under a microscope.

    It is pretty amazing that students can work with data like this, with computers and tools that enable it. Makes me wish I could go back to school and work on some of the stuff they teach in basic courses, particularly in high school.

    Kids these days! (are damned lucky!)

    --
    We emerge from our mother's womb an unformatted diskette; our culture formats us. - Douglas Coupland
    1. Re:Wow .. Grade 7 has changed by Tekfactory · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you read TFA, the kids were trying to find Lava Tubes around Pavonis Mons, a volcano on Mars.

      It seems to me that the forces of vulcanism, pushing up lava with only 1/3 gravity MIGHT cause them to form differently from those on Earth, which is why Olympus Mons is much taller than any volcano here.

      There is a cave found recently in Mexico with Crystal formations unlike anything ever seen before, outside of that I don't know how much interesting stuff there still is in caves on Earth.

      I've been to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and none of the caves there are 5-600 feet wide, tall, or anything.

      I remember 8th grade AP Science and we never did anything this cool, although in 7th grade we were programming TRS-80s and Apple IIs.

    2. Re:Wow .. Grade 7 has changed by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wait, we are supposed to give more money to schools where teachers are getting robbed at knifepoint? That doesn't seem like a great investment to me...

      --
      "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
    3. Re:Wow .. Grade 7 has changed by socsoc · · Score: 2, Funny

      I've been to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and none of the caves there are 5-600 feet wide, tall, or anything.

      The Parks Service begs to differ. Would length fall into your definition of anything?

    4. Re:Wow .. Grade 7 has changed by lawpoop · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When I was in high school, there was a class called Space Tech. It was a combination shop and science class. We built our own telescopes, learned about the inverse square law, how to calculate the age of the universe, build a container for instruments that were supposed to withstand heat and cold, and used image processing programs to look for unusual geological features on images of the planets.

      The final was a shuttle simulation. The class was broken into teams. One team build robotic arms to perform actions in space, another was the crew that spent the night in an old room converted to a shuttle simulation, and a few other teams I can't remember. I was on the media team, and it was our job to talk to the different crews and make press releases. We released them on K12 newgroups. Back in 1994, this was really awesome, and I had no idea what we were doing. Little did we know, the teacher had some students from another of his classes send us an email claiming to be from the FAA advising us to take our vehicle out of airspace, or something to that effect. It was 1994, I had no internet savvy -- this was before spam and everything -- so I took it to the teacher. He laughed.

      It was a great class. Go Mr. Donelson at Gahanna Lincoln!

      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
  7. More pics by Locke2005 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here's a high-res picture of the cave interior

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  8. Spoiled kids by StikyPad · · Score: 4, Funny

    In my day, a fieldtrip consisted of nothing more than going outside -- in a field. The only caves we saw were the ones we had school in, and those were shared with the grizzly bears. If you've never seen your best friend's head get popped like a grape in the jaws of a grizzly, you've got it easy. It wasn't all bad though. Whenever we got a new transfer student, we'd convince them to yell into the cave really loud to "scare away the bats." Man, that was hilarious.

    Anyway, yeah.. Mars.

    --
    https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
  9. Re:Interesting location by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 3, Funny

    Diametrically opposite to the face on mars.

    Perhaps we will be seeing National Enquirer headlines about "The Giant Martian Anus" soon?

    --
    This ain't rocket surgery.
  10. I found it first by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 2, Funny

    Opposite side of the planet as the face on Mars.

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  11. Re:Question by nblender · · Score: 4, Funny

    Since it's facing us, that means it's on the side of the planet and as such, it is a cave. If it was on top of the planet, it would be a hole. Do try to keep up.

  12. And The NASA Scientists Are All Asking Themselves by ATestR · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are You Smarter Than A 7th Grader?

    --
    âoeAny society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
  13. Cannon by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's no cave. That's the opening to the underground cannon the Martians used to fire their invasion cylinders at Earth during the opposition of the last years of the 19th century.

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  14. Re:And this is why they cut the NASA budget by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The total budget is still larger, and thank goodness they're getting rid of Operation Lets-Repeat-Apollo-And-Act-Like-That-Means-Something which was preventing other actually new and interesting things from being accomplished.

    BTW I got that you were joking, but it wasn't funny. It seems like there could be a joke premised on NASA hiring 7th graders, so maybe try working on it. Or not.

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are
  15. Quoting Robin: by thomst · · Score: 2, Funny

    Holey Marscape, Batman!

    --
    Check out my novel.
  16. Seriously offtopic by thomst · · Score: 2, Funny

    Y'know what I find frustratingly unfair about virtually ALL Internet comment-posting systems?

    They all have a "submit" button, but there's never a "dominate" button ...

    --
    Check out my novel.