Meta Science in the News

Subterranean caves on Mars? Text Box: The image shown here and the following caption are from the “Astronomy Picture of the Day” for 2007 May 28, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070528.html: “Black spots have been discovered on Mars that are so dark that nothing inside can be seen. Quite possibly, the spots are entrances to deep underground caves capable of protecting Martian life, were it to exist. The unusual hole pictured above was found on the slopes of the giant Martian volcano Arsia Mons. The above image was captured three weeks ago by the HiRISE instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars. The holes were originally identified on lower resolution images from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The above hole is about the size of a football field and is so deep that it is completely unilluminated by the Sun. Such holes and underground caves might be prime targets for future spacecraft, robots, and even the next generation of human interplanetary explorers.”

Fredrik Persson and Neil DeRosa on the Meta Research Message Board (http://metaresearch.org/msgboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=978) and several members of SPSR have recently discussed these images and several news stories they generated about possible caves on Mars. See for example this paper from the Lunar and Planetary Science XXXVIII conference (2007): http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2007/pdf/1371.pdf; or this link to the Planetary Society story:

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000984/. Quoting these discussions:

“Analyses of the candidates suggest that they are not of impact origin, not patches of dark surface material, and are likely skylight openings into subsurface cavernous openings. … Thermal infrared data suggests temperatures inside these features that remain constant throughout each diurnal cycle.” The temperatures inside these caverns are warmer at night and cooler during the day than surface temperatures, properties consistent with subterranean caverns, especially on Mars where surface temperatures would fluctuate widely due to the thin atmosphere.”

Although these images and stories have generated both excitement and speculation, we think the most likely explanation for their origin is one suggested by reading a Space Daily news story about vast water deposits near volcanoes on Mars at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-water-00b.html. If thick layers of ice form on the sides of volcanoes, and a later eruption sends lava flowing down the slopes, the lava is likely to harden before a thick ice layer can be completely melted. If the ice later sublimates over geological time, it will leave vast caverns under the solidified lava surface.

“Violent history of Mars” video The video accompanying our last issue has proved very popular. Since it was first posted, we have improved the sound track. Soon, the text boxes will be replaced with a voice-over explanation. Check back soon to view and hear the latest version. Interest in it has also been expressed by a production company working on a new science series. We’ll let you know if that matures into an appearance on TV. To go directly to the video, click http://metaresearch.org/media%20and%20links/animations/violentmars.wmv for the full-screen version or http://metaresearch.org/media%20and%20links/animations/violentmars_small.wmv for the small screen version.

ESA comments on “horn” on Cydonia Face image Our 2006 September 15 issue (http://metaresearch.org/publications/bulletin/2006issues/0915/Mrb06c.asp) contained an article about the new 3-D stereo image of the Cydonia Face – the real image seen by the spacecraft and the “processed” one with selectively exaggerated vertical relief and a “horn” on the forehead that was released to the world media. Knowing that this image was obtained by the ESA Mars Express spacecraft, the Society for Planetary SETI Research (SPSR) asked ESA to comment. Lan Fleming, Dr. Mark Carlotto, and Dr. Horace Crater of SPSR wrote about this and finally received a reply from Prof. Dr. Gerhard Neukum of the ESA team. The discussion of problems with the media image and the complete response from ESA may be viewed at the “SPSR News” in the top-left corner sidebar link at http://spsr.utsi.edu/.

The article is titled “The Two Faces of ESA" and appears along with a reply letter by Dr. Neukum. The key sentence from that letter says: “we are also not convinced that the ‘peak’ exists in the way it appears in the second DTM.” That would be a reference to the “horn” feature.

Stardust and the EPH – a letter from Michael Fisher “In the December 15, 2006 issue of Science magazine are seven papers that present preliminary results from analysis of the particles from the coma of comet Wild 2 that were returned to earth by the Stardust mission. The papers are in a special section of issue 5806, accessible online at: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol314/issue5806/index.dtl.

“It seems to me that the reported results provide support the EPH, although there is no mention of the EPH in any of the articles.

“The introduction to the Stardust special section includes the statement ‘... many particles are mixtures of minerals, mostly silicates. The lack of amorphous grains is one surprise, because such grains are seen in interstellar space. Isotopically, the comet specs resemble rocks from the inner solar system; virtually no grains that pre-date the Sun were seen. A single grain contains minerals produced at high temperatures, in a region close to the Sun, and with isotope ratios similar to those of some meteorites. Thus, material has been mixed across the solar system, from the innermost portion to the outer regions of the Kuiper belt where this comet originated.’

“It seems to me that the EPH offers a far simpler explanation for these ‘surprising’ results: that the comet itself originated in the inner solar system, and was flung out to a cometary orbit by an explosion event (which also caused the isotopically similar meteorites to reach the earth).”

First well-confirmed observations of an occultation by an asteroid’s satellite From Dr. Mitsuru Soma, Japanese National Astronomical Observatory:

“The occultations by (22) Kalliope and its satellite Linus were observed in Japan at around 19:49 UT on 2006 Nov 7. As shown at http://uchukan.satsumasendai.jp/data/occult/0611Kalliope-red-E.gif, positive observations of the occultation by Kalliope were reported by eight observers so far, and those by Linus were made by six, and the observations are consistent with each other. The angular distance between Kalliope and Linus turned out to be 0.26 arcsec at the time of the occultation. The occultation by Linus was predicted by Dr. Jerome Berthier of IMCCE in France (whose prediction was brought to us by J. Lecacheux in France 19 hours before the event) and it turned out that the prediction was accurate within about 100 km. This is the first successful observation of an occultation by an asteroidal satellite known previously by other means.

“We hope that this will encourage more observers to monitor close appulses to try to find and confirm occultations by satellites of other asteroids.

“It was fortuitous that the path for the occultation by Linus passed over the outer western suburbs of Tokyo where several observers were ready to time it. At least one observer between the two shadow paths (for Kalliope and Linus) reported no occultation.

“Although Tsutomu Hayamizu is preparing an enlarged figure for Linus, you can see Takashi Setoguchi's figures (map and more detailed views) now at http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~set/Unlink/Kalliope.html.”

[Note by David Dunham: The very elongated outline of Linus in the figure on the above link is surely an artefact of the observations that probably have some timing errors, and not a good distribution across the object; it would be better to just fit a circle that would have a radius a little less than the major axis of the plotted ellipse since the observations aren't sufficient to determine the true ellipticity of Linus.]

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