Aligned depressions on 67P

Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

 

Four neatly aligned circular depressions along the edge of a plateau just above Hapi Valley. (Image taken from ESA's 22 January Cometwatch page entitled "More Change in Hapi?")

 

It seems hard to believe that this neat arrangement could be the result of outgassing from subsurface ice. The arrangement bears more resemblance to the innumerable series of 3 to 5 perfectly aligned and juxtaposed "drill-holes" which can be seen in every image of the comet, at every scale, with diameters ranging from millimetres up to tens of metres. The circular depressions in this photo are clearly in the latter category and strongly resemble the rows of aligned, often overlapping "craters" seen everywhere on Mars, as here: www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2012/12/12/martian-electric-augers/.

 

They are more probably the result of a moving electric arc discharge, like the drill-holes.

 

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Uploaded on February 12, 2015