The latest discovery of a mysterious cave on Mars was not found by scientists, astronomers or even adults. It was discovered by a group of 7th graders.

According to Space.com, 16 students from a 7th grade science class at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, CA found a hole in the roof of a Martian cave.

Participating in the Mars Student Imaging Program at the Mars Flight Facility at Arizona State University, the students were able to use NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter and its Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) instrument. They were looking for tunnels called “lava tubes,” which are created by flowing lava on the red planet.

“The students developed a research project focused on finding the most common locations of lava tubes on Mars,” Dennis Mitchell, the students’ teacher, told Space.com. “Do they occur most often near the summit of a volcano, on its flanks, or the plains surrounding it?”

Two photos — a main one and a backup — were taken of Mars’ Pavonis Mons volcano at a region that had not been seen up close before.

Both showed lava tubes, but it was the backup that reveled the hole on Mars that led to the cave. Scientists believe this Martian skylight was formed when volcanic eruptions stopped and cooled material settled on top of the lava tubes, forming a roof. It’s likely that a section of the roof then caved in.

The students’ site will now be studied further by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which could lead scientists to discover what materials are actually inside the cave.

“The Mars student Imaging Program is certainly one of the greatest educational programs ever developed,” Mitchell told Space.com. “It gives the students a good understanding of the way research is conducted and how that research can be important for the scientific community. This has been a wonderful experience.”

News source via K!dult