After 24 years of studying Mars, you must think that NASA has known the ins and outs of the red planet. However, one of the latest photographs submitted by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) made the researchers at the US Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Configuration confused.
In a photo taken by the MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, a deep and wide hole has just revealed itself among the layers of carbon dioxide in the south pole of Mars.
HiRISE camera is capable of shooting objects measuring one meter or more from a distance of 200 to 400 kilometers. Therefore, the mysterious hole is clearly not to be underestimated. Just imagine, if one pixel from the original photo of NASA represents 50 centimeters, then the diameter of the hole can reach hundreds of meters.
Now, NASA researchers are questioning the cause of the hole, although they already know some things that can make a hole in the surface of the planet Mars.
Meteor strikes, for example, have left the craters on the face of the red planet. Meanwhile, the collapsed lava tube will create deep holes, floods in the past will leave a cliff, and volcanic activity that melts the ice will leave the funnel.
So, the question is whether the hole is caused by an attack from outside the planet Mars or the carelessness in it? Without further information, NASA researchers still can not give an answer.
Instead, what they have done is name the layer of carbon dioxide that surrounds the hole. Called "Swiss cheese field", the area should be a flat, flat layer, but the planet's summons make the ice sublimated and leave a look resembling a Swiss cheese surface.
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