Starship Asterisk*

https://www.uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_063262_1755 wrote:

Staring into a Pit

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<<This observation was meant to examine a pit identified in a Context Camera image to see if HiRISE could resolve any details inside. In this cutout, we see the “normal” view of the HiRISE image on the left, while the right shows what happens when we try to “enhance” the brightness of the pixels in the pit.

Fortunately, HiRISE is sensitive enough to actually see things in this otherwise dark pit. Since HiRISE turned by almost 30 degrees to capture this image, we can see the rough eastern wall of the pit. The floor of the pit appears to be smooth sand and slopes down to the southeast. The hope was to determine if this was an isolated pit, or if it was a skylight into a tunnel, much like skylights in the lava tubes of Hawai’i. We can’t obviously see any tunnels in the visible walls, but they could be in the other walls that aren’t visible.>>

SpaceCadet wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 12:37 pm How is martian life a possibility when there isn't any atmosphere to speak of?

SpaceCadet wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 12:37 pm How is martian life a possibility when there isn't any atmosphere to speak of?

MadCat-75 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 9:11 am The home of the giant ant lions... xD

Astronymus wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 6:30 pm

MadCat-75 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 9:11 am The home of the giant ant lions... xD

Hehe, had the same thought. Now I'd like to see those giant Mars ants. :lol2:

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 6:40 pm

Astronymus wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 6:30 pm

MadCat-75 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 9:11 am The home of the giant ant lions... xD

Hehe, had the same thought. Now I'd like to see those giant Mars ants.

I remember this old movie I saw on TV when I was a kid, where martian invaders kidnapped people by somehow making the sand under them open up and swallow them. A really hokey movie, but there was something terrifying about the way people just got sucked into the ground. Thought about that for years when I was on sand!

(The movie, creatively enough, was called Invaders from Mars.)
_

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

SteveH wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 4:00 pm
My speculation is that being on a volcano, the cavern is a lava tube. The hole is located in a place where the ceiling of the tube was very near the ground surface and, as mentioned before, there was a collapse. The circular crater is what was left after the sandy surface drained into the tube.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_Shield_Rock wrote:
<<Following the identification of Heat Shield Rock as a meteorite, five similar iron meteorites were discovered by Opportunity (informally named "Block Island", "Ireland" "Mackinac Island", "Oileán Ruaidh" and "Shelter island"). Two nickel-iron meteorites were identified by the Spirit rover (informally named "Allan Hills" and "Zhong Shan"). One nickel-iron meteorite has been identified by the Curiosity rover, tagged "Lebanon." In addition, several candidate stony meteorites have also been identified on Mars.>>

https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/28/messages/695.html wrote:
<<Worried that their young twin boys had developed extreme personalities --
one was a total pessimist, the other a total optimist -- their parents took them to a psychiatrist.

First the psychiatrist treated the pessimist. Trying to brighten his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with brand-new toys. But instead of yelping with delight, the little boy burst into tears. "What's the matter?" the psychiatrist asked, baffled. "Don't you want to play with any of the toys?" "Yes," the little boy bawled, "but if I did I'd only break them."

Next the psychiatrist treated the optimist. Trying to dampen his out look, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with horse manure. But instead of wrinkling his nose in disgust, the optimist emitted just the yelp of delight the psychiatrist had been hoping to hear from his brother, the pessimist. Then he clambered to the top of the pile, dropped to his knees, and began gleefully digging out scoop after scoop with his bare hands. "What do you think you're doing?" the psychiatrist asked, just as baffled by the optimist as he had been by the pessimist. "With all this manure," the little boy replied, beaming, "there must be a pony in here somewhere!">>

Raymond Kenneth Petry wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 9:56 pm
Neat circle, no rim-pucker, slightly-left-off-centered ragged bottom hole, no ejecta on the periphery, except a short spillover to its right, 8% rim bevel...suggests a single meteor impact into damp sand-stone (mud volcano shield), removing 17% of the crater, from just-right-off-vertical (back-bounce overspilling), no atmosphere (at-that-time), meteor-shaped-charge penetrating to a sublevel watertable which subsequently evaporated-down (not long ago)...

smitty wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 2:43 pm Anybody know whether other, similar holes have been found on Mars, and if so how many?

wildespace wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 3:59 pm

SpaceCadet wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 12:37 pm How is martian life a possibility when there isn't any atmosphere to speak of?

Some forms of like don't require oxygen (or any atmosphere really). Thermal vents, even solid rocks. There are organisms feeding off chemical composition.

SpaceCadet wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2020 5:48 am

wildespace wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 3:59 pm

SpaceCadet wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2020 12:37 pm How is martian life a possibility when there isn't any atmosphere to speak of?

Some forms of like don't require oxygen (or any atmosphere really). Thermal vents, even solid rocks. There are organisms feeding off chemical composition.

But wouldn't the lifeform need protection from the solar elements,like radiation? An atmosphere isn't just about providing possible nutrition or an energy source.