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Are there chances of caves being found or traced on other planets of the solar system?

What's the solution?

  1. Manufacturing special telescopes for viewing or observing caves on other planets?

or

  1. Satellites revolving around Mars, Venus & Mercury sending images back to planet Earth for assistance?
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    $\begingroup$ Hi. I've edited. We don't need wikipedia to tell us what a cave is, and we know the names of the planets, so I've cut that out. It leaves a rather short question. Perhaps you could flesh it out with some prior research. $\endgroup$
    – James K
    Oct 22, 2020 at 19:35
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    $\begingroup$ There are only eight planets in our solar system. $\endgroup$
    – gerrit
    Oct 23, 2020 at 8:33
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    $\begingroup$ Are you mostly interested in whether caves may exist on other planets, or whether (if they exist) we would be able to actually detect them? $\endgroup$
    – gerrit
    Oct 23, 2020 at 8:36

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A key requirement for caves is solid substance: while there may be rock cores inside the giant planets, the rest is liquid or gas. Metallic hydrogen may be solid or liquid in Jupiter, but presumably the pressure is high enough to prevent cave formation. So no for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

A second requirement is some factor digging cavities. On Earth water, chemical erosion and lava are factors.

The terrestrial planets have solid substance and not too extreme gravity. There are suspected "cave skylights" seen on Mars. Lava tubes are expected on Venus. Mercury volcanism was very different, but lava tubes may have existed. There are also weird hollows.

That leaves Pluto. Pluto has had cryovolcanism, so it is not implausible that "lava tubes" have been dug by molten water and ammonia.

As a bonus: smaller asteroids are often "rubble piles" of rocks loosely held together. It is not hard to imagine that there are empty spaces between big rocks that could count as caves. Same for comets, where evaporation of ice may contribute to making cave-like structures.

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    $\begingroup$ This answer addresses the likelihood of whether caves may exist on other planets, which is good, but the question asked whether caves may be found, which this answer only addresses very little. If they exist, how could we detect them for sure? $\endgroup$
    – gerrit
    Oct 23, 2020 at 8:34
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    $\begingroup$ Through optical and radar observations of openings and/or collapsed lava tubes, as in the case of Mars, Venus and (potentially) Mercury? $\endgroup$
    – Anders Sandberg
    Oct 23, 2020 at 10:07
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. Any specific telescopes manufactured for viewing and/or Mars, Venus & Mercury planets Satellites images will assist? google.com/… $\endgroup$
    – Prashant Akerkar
    Oct 23, 2020 at 10:18
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. Satellites revolving around Mars, Venus & Mercury planets images send back to planet earth will not assist? $\endgroup$
    – Prashant Akerkar
    Oct 24, 2020 at 2:21
  • $\begingroup$ This space.SE post might be relevant here: space.stackexchange.com/questions/26147/… $\endgroup$
    – Nilay Ghosh
    Oct 24, 2020 at 4:37

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