Mars Cave

A seventh grade class in Cottonwood, California, has discovered what could be a cave on Mars. Working under a program run by Arizona State University that allows classes across the country to formulate questions about Mars, then book time on one of the probes now orbiting the Red Planet to take images that might answer the questions, the Cottonwood kids found something interesting.

Their question involved searching for lava tubes, and they decided to look in a volcanically active area that hadn't been intensively studied before. They in fact found what looked like lava tube formations, but they found something more. Atop one lava tube was a big hole-- an entrance to the tube. Essentially, they found a cave. Scientists referred to the hole as a "skylight" formed when a weak part of the ceiling of the tube collasped.

Lava tubes are interesting places to look for life on Mars because they could shield that life from the radiation that constantly bathes the surface. For the same reason, they might make good locations for early human bases. Placing a base inside a lava tube but near a skylight could be interesting.

Will any of the kids have a chance to go to Mars and see the cave up close? If President Obama is right that the first human mission to Mars will happen in the 2030s, the kids might well be the right age to be among the first human explorers.