AS HIGHER AND HIGHER RESOLUTION PICTURES OF MARS COME INTO VIEW–A MOUND CALLED ATHABASCAN ENIGMA COMES INTO FOCUS LEAVING SCIENTISTS DUMBFOUNDED–BUT THEN EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE LEAVES EARTH BOUND SCIENCE TO WONDER THE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE WHEN NOT G*D CENTRIC

THIS one’s for real. Forget the faces and the pyramids: An odd ‘boil’ on the face of Mars has scientists scrambling for an explanation.

The weird circular blemish, some 2km in diameter, recently appeared in an image beamed back from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

It leaps out at the camera in an area otherwise unusually smooth for the Red planet.

And that in itself could be a clue.

Pock-marked Mars ... The unusual circular feature sits starkly in a smooth lava flow in the Mars region of Athabasca. Source: NASA Source: Supplied

“It looks like a circular island surrounded by a “sea” of smooth-looking lava flows,” a NASA statement on the Athabascan ‘enigma’ reads.

It’s just speculation at the moment: It will no doubt occupy geologists for some time to model the possible cases.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/nasas-athabascan-enigma-is-an-unusual-mound-on-mars/story-fnjwlcze-1227148012348