A Mysterious Hole on Mars May Be a Gateway to Ancient Life—and the Future of Humanity
Mars is not a hospitable planet, so finding the right place for a future human settlement will be crucial.
One potential candidate, recently imaged by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), could be “skylights” leading to immense, underground lava tubes.
These mysterious holes could provide many benefits—including protection from radiation and wild planetary temperature swings—and could even be home to microbial life.
When it comes to habitability, Earth is the crown jewel of the Solar System. Mild temperature swings, a magnetic radiation shield, and an abundance of freshwater makes our terrestrial existence easy living—at least, compared to Mars. With an atmosphere only one percent as dense as Earth’s and no magnetic field to speak of, living on the Red Planet is not going to be easy. But there are some areas that might be a little bit friendlier than others.
Take, for instance, Arsia Mons, one of the largest shield volcanoes on Mars—and, by extension, the Solar System. NASA recently released an image (originally captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) back on August 15, 2022 that features a mysterious hole embedded in the ancient volcano’s slopes. Flying 159 miles above the Martian surface, the MRO captured this mysterious hole in the ground even though it was only a few meters across.
While scientists are unsure exactly what this hole could be, its presence in the Tharsis Montes region—a bulge of ancient volcanism that houses some of the planet’s largest volcanoes along the equator of the western hemisphere—could mean than the hole is an entrance or “skylight” to an underground labyrinth of lava tubes. A formation like that could be a huge opportunity for searching for microbial life but also as a potential Martian home for humans.
Because Mars can’t ward off radiation with a magnetic field, creating a base in these kinds of tubes could help protect future astronauts from radiation levels that are some 40 to 50 times greater than those experienced on Earth. These pits could also help create a stable environment that’s protected from Mars’ incredible temperature swings. After all, a summer day along the Martian equator can reach temperatures as high as 70° Fahrenheit, while a summer night can plummet to about -100° Fahrenheit.
While NASA knows little about these Martian lava tubes, similar structures found on the Moon indicate that these locations could be ideal for human habitation. In 2009, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) found similar holes on the moon’s surface, and a 2022 study discovered that they maintain a constant temperature of around 63° Fahrenheit—a pretty good deal, considering that the Moon’s temperature swings are about as wild as those found on Mars.
“Humans evolved living in caves, and to caves we might return when we live on the Moon,” David Paige, a co-author of the paper that made these initial temperature measurements, said at the time. The same might be true for Mars.
It’s uncertain if this particular Martian hole leads to a deeper underground structure or is a relatively shallow hole, similar to the pit craters found in Hawaii (which are also shield volcanoes). However, the existence of these immense Martian volcanoes suggests that such a structure likely exists somewhere. It’s just up to us humans—and our ever trusty rovers and Martian helicopters—to find them.
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