THIS IS MARS:
Ordered by students at Evergreen Middle School, students are researching volcanic activity and other geographic features on Mars.

Evergreen Middle School students are still pursuing the surface of Mars after consulting with NASA scientists at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz.

Eight of 14 students in Dennis Mitchell’s 7th grade research team recently went to ASU to take pictures of Mars courtesy of a camera onboard NASA’s Mars Odessey Orbiter.

They came away with pictures of Mars that had never been taken before. The photographs come from the onboard THEMIS camera, a rough acronym for Thermal Emission Imaging System. Visual images of Mars from THEMIS resolve to 18 meters per pixel.

Knowing this, Mitchell tasked the students to determine the actual size of calderas on Mars by using graphics software to measure the number of pixels across the image of the caldera and multiplying that by 18 meters.

The students’ original quest to find cinder cone volcanoes on Mars has led to additional research of rootless cones. The existence of rootless cones on Mars indicates the possibility of the existence of water on Mars, at least at the time of the eruption.

However, frozen carbon dioxide, which would turn directly to a gas when heated by lava, could be the cause, said Mitchell.

According to student Katherine Sjoberg, “For rootless cones to form, there has to be a form of water present. The cones form when lava from a different eruption floes over a form of water creating steam, which erupts through the lava.”

Some Earthly examples of rootless cones are found in Iceland.

“I like how we’re finding similarities between Earth and Mars even though we’re so far apart,” said student Keith Gillispie. “At first I thought the idea was pretty bizarre, but then we started finding things.”

“We don’t always give them the opportunity to get involved with the kinds of things we, as adults, like to be involved in,” Mitchell said of including 7th graders in scientific research.

“The students are coming away with a better understanding of the process of being a scientist and what research is really about,” continued Mitchell. “One of the things the kids saw on a constant basis was how math and language arts were used by scientists on a daily basis. They were saying things like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s the Pythagorean theorem.’”

Students had an opportunity to speak with Dr. Steve Ruff at ASU. Ruff, a planetary geologist, was a leading scientist on one of the Mars rover projects, Mitchell said. Ruff debated with students about the pictures, and whether some of their discovered calderas were rootless cones or merely eroded craters.

Mitchell’s research team is expected to present their findings to NASA by videoconference in May, and they expect to continue their research through the following school year.

The trip to ASU was funded in part by Anderson Rotary and the Sons of Italy.