September 25, 2007 8:46 AM PDT
The Mars Odyssey spacecraft has detected what looks like the openings of seven caves on a volcano named Arsia Mons near Mars' tallest mountain. Its infrared cameras that indicate temperature changes showed that the temperature around the potential cave openings vary much less than the temperature of the surrounding terrain.
In the two infrared images on the right, this cave named "Annie" is cooler than the surrounding area in the afternoon (middle) and warmer than the surrounding area at night (right). The lighter colors indicate a higher temperature. The opening is about the length of two football fields.
Meanwhile, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is examining Martian evidence that shows the presence of water at different times in Martian history.
Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/USGS
