Mars, punctured.

[nibot]

Photo from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter / NASA JPL.

Apologies if you already read Astronomy Picture of the Day (apod) or have seen this somewhere else, but I thought it was sufficiently wild to pass on. The image is from a high resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The black spot is a spot where it sees nothing! The speculation (from the Planetary Society) is that they they are very deep holes, maybe underground caves! The interpretation I am going for is: home of the space-worm!

Comments

Re: crazy!

[gaal.livejournal.com]

Or maybe it really is Nothing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Neverending_Story).

[kaolinfire.livejournal.com]

sweet :) and so perfectly round given what looks to be varied surface around it...

I'll buy space-worms. :)

[ioerror.livejournal.com]

Jammers. It's clearly a crashed probe with a proper IED!

[snarkyshark2.livejournal.com]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! (I love space worms)

[wanton-adonis.livejournal.com]

My first check would be to make sure it's not a shadow.

[gstef.livejournal.com]

malfunction of the instrument, a dust particle, a body that absorbs all of the EM freq range used, bugs bunny's summer residence in mars

[ladytetsu.livejournal.com]

if you walk without rhythym. . .

that is odd. I wonder if that beauty was punched-through or if the surface subsided over a cavern?

Bets on ice at the bottom?

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

My vote is for an alien (or Martian) cloaking mechanism which creates a black hole-like light sucking function so that no one can see them. It's so totally obvious.