Enigmatic holes on Mars might hold secrets to extraterrestrial life
What's the story
Mars is home to a series of enigmatic holes or pits, located on the sides of ancient volcanoes in the Tharsis region.
A 2022 image captured by NASA's HiRISE camera, aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, has reignited interest in these features.
The Tharsis region is known for its large volcanoes, including Olympus Mons, which is the largest volcano in our solar system.
The holes are believed to be "skylights" where the ground has collapsed above underground lava tubes.
Exploration
Potential for future scientific missions
The pits on Mars are estimated to be around 10 feet in diameter, but their depth and destination remain unknown.
Brandon Johnson, a geophysicist at Purdue University, suggests that these lava tubes could potentially serve as shelters for future human missions to Mars.
"There's more than one of these [pits] on Mars that we've seen. But they're really interesting because they're places where astronauts might be able to go and be safe from radiation," Johnson told Business Insider.
Possibility
The search for extraterrestrial life
The holes could also be potential sites for the search for extraterrestrial life on Mars.
These pits may provide a warm and sheltered environment from the planet's harsh surface conditions, making them ideal for life to develop.
However, Ross Beyer, a planetary scientist with the SETI Institute, cautions that "there's no way to know what's in them until we explore them in more detail."
Currently, our understanding of these features is limited to what can be observed from orbit.
Future
Challenges and future exploration
Beyer explained that the best way to explore these pits would be to physically enter them with a rover.
However, due to the limitations of orbiting cameras, there are parts of the pits that remain unseen.
"Unfortunately, there is a limit to the 'angle' that we can get from orbit to look 'into' these pits. So sometimes we can see 'walls' and sometimes we can't," Beyer told Business Insider.
Despite these challenges, Johnson remains optimistic about future exploration missions.