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Topic Name: NASA Orbiter Finds Possible Cave Skylights on Mars
Category: STAR (Space, Telecommunications & Radioscience)
Research persons: Glen F. Sutherland Esq.
Location: 520 Providence Highway, Norwood, Massachusetts 02062, United States
Details
NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered entrances to seven possible
caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano. The find is fueling interest in
potential underground habitats and sparking searches for caverns elsewhere on
the Red Planet.
Very dark, nearly circular features ranging in diameter from about 100 to 250
meters (328 to 820 feet) puzzled researchers who found them in images taken by
NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor orbiters. Using Mars Odyssey's
infrared camera to check the daytime and nighttime temperatures of the circles,
scientists concluded that they could be windows into underground spaces.
Evidence that the holes may be openings to cavernous spaces comes from the
temperature differences detected from infrared images taken in the afternoon and
in the pre-dawn morning. From day to night, temperatures of the holes change
only about one-third as much as the change in temperature of surrounding ground
surface.
"They are cooler than the surrounding surface in the day and warmer at night,"
said Glen Cushing of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Team and of
Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Ariz. "Their thermal behavior is not as
steady as large caves on Earth that often maintain a fairly constant
temperature, but it is consistent with these being deep holes in the ground."
A report of the discovery of the possible cave skylights by Cushing and his
co-authors was published online recently by the journal Geophysical Research
Letters.
"Whether these are just deep vertical shafts or openings into spacious caverns,
they are entries to the subsurface of Mars," said co-author Tim Titus of the
U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff. "Somewhere on Mars, caves might provide a
protected niche for past or current life, or shelter for humans in the future."
The discovered holes, dubbed "Seven Sisters," are at some of the highest
altitudes on the planet, on a volcano named Arsia Mons near Mars' tallest
mountain.
"These are at such extreme altitude, they are poor candidates either for use as
human habitation or for having microbial life," Cushing said. "Even if life has
ever existed on Mars, it may not have migrated to this height."
The new report proposes that the deep holes on Arsia Mons probably formed as
underground stresses around the volcano caused spreading and faults that opened
spaces beneath the surface. Some of the holes are in line with strings of
bowl-shaped pits where surface material has apparently collapsed to fill the gap
created by a linear fault.
The observations have prompted researchers using Mars Odyssey and NASA's newer
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to examine the Seven Sisters. The goal is to find
other openings to underground spaces at lower elevations that are more
accessible to future missions to Mars.
"The key to finding these was looking for temperature anomalies at night -- warm
spots," said Phil Christensen of Arizona State University, Tempe, principal
investigator for the Thermal Emission Imaging System on Mars Odyssey. That
instrument produced both visible-light and infrared images researchers used for
examining the possible caves.
"No other instrument at Mars could give the thermal information crucial to this
research," said the project scientist for Mars Odyssey, Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "This is a great example of the
exciting discoveries Odyssey continues to make." Mars Odyssey reached Mars in
2001, years before any of the other spacecraft currently examining the planet.
Its predecessor, Mars Global Surveyor, ended its mission last year.
Mars Odyssey is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project
and built the spacecraft. The orbiter's Thermal Emission Imaging System was
developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon
Santa Barbara Remote Sensing, Santa Barbara, Calif., and is operated by Arizona
State University. For additional information about Mars Odyssey and the new
findings, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/odyssey.
Media contact: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
Phone: 202-358-1726
About Researcher:
Glen F. Sutherland Esq.
520 Providence Highway
Route 1, Suite 10
Norwood, Massachusetts 02062
Phone: (781) 278-9901
E-mail: Email Me
Fax: (781) 278-9911
Web site: http://www.cushingdolan.com
Areas of Practice:
Real Estate Law
Bar Admissions:
Massachusetts, 1991
U.S. District Court District of Massachusetts, 1991
Education:
Suffolk University Law School, Boston, Massachusetts, May, 1991
Juris Doctor
Honors: Cum Laude
Honors: Class Rank: Top One-fifth
Syracuse University, May, 1983
B.S.
Honors: Dean's List: Five Semesters
Major: Broadcast Journalism
Minor: Political Science
Professional Associations and Memberships:
Boston Bar Association
Member, Residential Conveyancing Committee
Massachusetts Conveyancers Association
Member
Past Employment Positions:
Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc., Boston, Mass., Attorney, 1991 -
1993
Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc., Boston, Mass.,
Administrator/Marketing Director, 1987 -1991
WCAP Radio, Lowell, Massachusetts, Sports Director, 1984 - 1987
WCAP Radio, Lowell, Massachusetts, News Reporter, 1983 - 1984
Ancillary Businesses:
Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation
Old Republic Title Insurance Company
Fidelity National Title Insurance Company
First American Title Insurance Company
Related Online Resources:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/odyssey.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/odyssey/20060313.html
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/MarinaTsukerman.shtml
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
http://www.asu.edu/
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