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The Web Site of the San Antonio Astronomical Association

New images from American and European spacecraft support growing evidence that Mars once was a water-rich planet capable of supporting life.

The new vistas reveal details of regions thought to contain water-bearing minerals and geological formations formed billions of years ago.

Stunning images captured by the High-Resolution Stereo Camera aboard the European Space Agency’s Mars Express show the cliffs, valleys and plateaus of Echus Chasma, thought to have been one of the largest water-source regions on Mars.

Echus Chasma resembles a dry riverbed 60 miles long and 6 miles wide. It cuts through the Lunae Planum high plateau north of Valles Marineris, the so-called Grand Canyon of Mars.

The images, which were released Tuesday, were taken on September 25, 2005,  show side-branching valleys roughly 6 miles long and half a mile deep.

Has the term "black hole" become the latest victim of the political correctness jihad?

Apparently it has.  According the the Dallas Morning News’ City Hall Blog, on Monday, July 7, 2008 Dallas County (Texas) Commissioners Court held a special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets that turned tense and bizarre.

County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections "has become a black hole" because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud "Excuse me!" He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a "white hole."

That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.

Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term. A black hole, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is "the invisible remains of a collapsed star, with an intense gravitational field from which neither light nor matter can escape."

Commissioner Price and County Judge Jones should be relieved that the central collections office isn’t a "white hole".  A white hole is a theoretical construct that ejects matter from its event horizon.  It is the opposite of a black hole.