Students discover cave on Red Planet

A group of 16 seventh-grade students have found a cave on Mars using the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.

The schoolgoers were using the THEMIS to find lava tubes on the Red Plant when they came across a small black feature straddling one of the tubes.

The feature, identified as a cave or "skylight", near the Pavonis Mons volcano was a hole, punched in the top of a hollow tube.

The students, from Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, California, were participating in the Mars Student Imaging Program (MSIP), a part of Arizona State University's Mars Education Program.

"This pit is certainly new to us," Discovery News quoted Glen Cushing, a US Geological Survey scientist, as saying.

He added: "And it is only the second one known to be associated with Pavonis Mons."

Cushing believes the new skylight is around 190×160 meters wide and at least 115 meters deep.

via Students discover cave on Red Planet.