Photograph
MarsReconnaissance Orbiter
Agency NASA
RAVAGED by the largest dust storms in the solar system and with temperatures that can fall to around -125°C, the surface of Mars is a hostile place. But what about beneath the ground – what might lurk there?
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This image of an unusual crater on the slopes of Mars’s Pavonis Mons volcano was captured in 2011 by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is still surveying the Red Planet. NASA has reposted the image on its blog to stimulate fresh discussion about the crater.
The 35-metre-wide hole at the centre of the crater opens to an underground cavern that is protected from extreme weather conditions, so may be more likely to have once housed life. It is thought to have before debris within the crater above fell in and filled some of the cavern. Now it is probably around 28 metres deep.
No one yet knows how the crater formed. It could have been created by past volcanic activity on Pavonis Mons, which, at more than 14,000 metres high, is nearly 1.5 times taller than Earth’s Mount Everest. Lava that once flowed from the volcano hardened on the outside, while the lava below this continued to flow, forming structures called lava tubes, which could have resulted in the crater.
NASA says such caves are key targets for future exploration by robots and spacecraft – and perhaps even humans.
