News Media Covers Caves on Mars & Alien Life

Martian Caves May Harbor Alien Life

Monday, April 02, 2007

By Ker Than

A Mars-orbiting satellite recently spotted seven dark spots near the planet's equator that scientists think could be entrances to underground caves.

The football-field sized holes were observed by Mars Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) and have been dubbed the "seven sisters" — Dena, Chloe, Wendy, Annie, Abbey, Nikki and Jeanne — after loved ones of the researchers who found them.

The potential caves were spotted near a massive Martian volcano, Arisa Mons. Their openings range from about 330 to 820 feet (100 to 250 meters) wide, and one of them, Dena, is thought to extend nearly 430 feet (130 meters) beneath the planet's surface.

The researchers hope the discovery will lead to more focused spelunking on Mars.

"Caves on Mars could become habitats for future explorers or could be the only structures that preserve evidence of past or present microbial life," said Glenn Cushing of Northern Arizona University, who first spotted the black areas in the photographs.

SOURCE | Fox News

Hasn't this been discussed here on ATS already? What took the major news outlets so long? And why have the powers that be decided to push this out to the public? Regardless of the answers to these questions, the content of this write-up is somewhat interesting.

I've read it in some scientific publications, "Popular Science" and "New Scientist", if my memory serves me correctly, but most people would not get the significance of this find, thus it would bore them, thus mainstream news couldn't care less.

Yeah I know its been published, and even discussed here on ATS... i just found it odd that none of the major networks wanted to do anything about "Life on Mars". I can see your point, but at the same time I think it can be argued that caves with possible life in them is a big scoop that many people would be interested in.