Looks like they can keep looking

With the expensive and over-budget (by scads) roving Mars Science Laboratory delayed until 2011, they can keep thinking about where they're going to land it:

Site list narrows for NASA's Next Mars Landing

Of the choices, I like Eberswalde, an ancient delta. Click this pic to go to Malin Camera's Web site and see it full size.



But... there's a better place. It's the site of a hydrothermal system or even a hydrothermal explosion crater (at least that's what it looks like). It's called Dao Vallis. It's on the side of a volcano: Hadriaca Patera. What it looks like is a hydrothermal explosion crater that drained down the side of a volcano. Hydrothermal = hot springs = warm water = prime location for extremophiles.

Here's a small image:


Dao Vallis is the basin and channel system on the left. Another system, Niger Vallis, starts a bit higher on the volcano slope and the drainage channel joins the channel of Dao Vallis. There's a third channel further to the right.

Go here to see a big 3D image from the European Mars Express orbiter. Go to the page and click the picture links, and you'll see BIG pictures.

Dao Vallis in 3D

When you look at this particular image, in the depression where Dao Vallis originates, there are bumps. These could be hydrothermal mounds, formed underwater like the mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal vents, zones of proliferous life in otherwise barren abyss. Or they could be something formed in shallow warm waters -- huge fossil stromatolite mounds. In either case, these are prime targets.

In my book, there's no second choice. This is where to land.