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Deep Diving
A sinkhole in Mexico seems an unlikely spot to prepare for a search for extraterrestrial life, but that's exactly where a team of scientists and engineers have gathered this week to test a NASA robotic probe that may one day dive into an ocean on another world.

The sinkhole itself is far from ordinary. It could swallow the 1,046-foot tall Chrysler Building with room to spare, though nobody yet knows the chasm's true depth.

That's one goal of the expedition to El Zacatón, located in central Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

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If all goes well, the next test of the robot is expected to take place in Antarctica's Lake Bonney, where conditions are much more similar to the ice-capped environment of Europa, a moon of Jupiter's that is believed to hold an underground ocean.

Europa is a leading candidate for hosting possible extraterrestrial life in the solar system.