craters on Mars that may contain
water, heat, and nutrients—the ingredients
in the formation of life. The odd-looking
depressions—one in the Hellas Planitia
basin, the other in the Galaxias Fossae
region—were first spotted several years
ago, but researchers were only recently
able to analyze them in detail, reports
Astronomy.com. Using equipment that creates
a 3-D map from 2-D images, the team
from the University of Texas found that
both craters are shaped like funnels. The
Galaxias depression has debris around it,
indicating it was probably caused by an
asteroid impact. But the Hellas Planitia
crater has similar geological features to
the “ice cauldrons” found in Iceland and
Greenland, which form when underground
volcanic activity melts away surface ice.
If the same process occurred on the Red
Planet, the interaction of lava and ice
would have created an environment with
liquid water and chemical nutrients— fertile
ground for microbial life. The researchers
hope future missions to Mars will
explore the craters further. “These features
do really resemble ice cauldrons known
from Earth, and just from that perspective
they should be of great interest,” says
University of Iceland volcanologist Gro
Pedersen, who was not involved in the
study. So far, several missions to Mars
have yet to find any evidence of microbes,
though some scientists think it’s a matter
of looking in the right place.