an alluring pit on Mars is generating waves these days with the potential it holds of giving Refuge to Future visitors to the red planet imaged by NASA's Mars reconnaissance Orbiter this pit is on the flank of an ancient extinct volcano on Mars ramons many such pits which are a few meters across exist there on the flanks of volcanoes but why do such Pits on Mars get astronomers excited is this pit an opening to a larger underground Cavern is it an indication of a past water Channel and more importantly is there any possibility of Life existing
there welcome to lab 360 it's time to explore Mars has been a favorite of space enthusiasts because among all the other bodies in our solar system Mars seems to have the highest chances of possibly having hosted microbial life billions of years ago when it was more wet and warm with a thick atmosphere Mars also excites astronomers with its potential to host humans in the future these reasons have kept Mars the best loved planet of science fiction authors for centuries and don't we all remember the cold desolate unforgiving Mars from the movie The Martian absurd ideas
such as using Mars Moon Phobos as a space elevator have also been doing rounds emerging closer to reality from among these sprinkles of weird fantasies is musk's dream of colonizing Mars in the future by sending humans on spacex's Starship capsule just this June SpaceX took one more concrete step towards realizing this dream by conducting a fourth integrated successful test flight of Starship 9 8 5 4 3 2 this obsession with Mars led the famous planetary astronomer Carl San to write in his book Cosmos Mars has become a kind of Mythic Arena onto which we have
projected our Earthly hopes and fears coming back to pit craters on Mars why do pits and caves on Mars generate interest there are several reasons for that first is that they could serve as future shelter for astronauts what protects us from radiation on Earth is its thick jacket likee atmosphere and Global magnetic field in contrast Mars has a thin atmosphere and no Global magnetic field in fact the radiation exposure on Mars is 40 to 50 times as much as on Earth so underground caves such as this can provide the required shielding to astronauts from radiation
the second reason why these are good pit stops for astronomers is that they could hold evidence of past astrobiological life and who knows microbial life could be thriving there even today the pit crater is intriguing because it raises many unanswered questions does it open into a larger underground cave or is it a really deep lava tube rivers of hot molten lava spewed out from an active volcano start crusting when exposed to the air when the entire top layer hardens into a thick crust what you get is a conduit once the eruption stops all the lava
in such a channel empties out and you get a lava tube such Lava Tubes exist on Earth as well as on the moon if the ceiling of such a tube collapses in an area we get a skylight into the lava tube such as the one imaged on ramons which we're talking about another remote possibility is that these pits open up to where underground Rivers once flowed on Mars billions of years ago when Mars was more wet and warm and hence more habitable warm moist environments are best for bacterial growth and what better place for microbial
life to flourish if any existed than warm water flowing down the flank of an active volcano planetary GE ologists don't yet know how deep these pits descend if it's just a narrow shaft then hard luck but if it opens to a larger underground cave it can provide Shelter From the bombardment of radiation to Future martians well till a ground or aerial robot actually goes there and explores these pits all we can do is speculate so let's just wait for some concrete answers to this riddle of the Martian pits Mars is the second smallest planet in
our solar system after Mercury and is almost half the size of Earth Mars is one of the most explored bodies of our solar system and is currently completely inhabited by robots sent by humans the latest being NASA's perseverance Rover and the Ingenuity helicopter almost 96% of the atmosphere of Mars comprises carbon dioxide it has two potato-shaped moons called Phobos and Doos fear and dread fitting names for moons of a blood red planet named after the Roman God of War but do you know why Mars is the red planet the iron minerals in the Martian soil
oxidize or rust giving the surface and atmosphere of Mars an orangish red tinge the surface of Mars is freezing cold with an average temperature of -60° C thanks to its thin atmosphere which is unable to retain heat hence this newly discovered hole on Mars can also serve as an insulation chamber for future astronauts visiting the planet but only time will tell if this could become a reality share your thoughts in the comments section below and be sure to subscribe to the channel for the latest revelations in space exploration hit the Bell icon to stay updated
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