What happened in the Derelict ship, what caused this hole?

Wow! Nice catch..never really thought about it.

Hope Ridley incorporates it into the story line.

Looks like something a treasure hunter/tomb raider might do. Maybe to gain access to the 'good stuff'?

Maybe a really nasty alien needed out or in?

Looks melted.

The original ideas... was two Space Jockeys if i am right and so maybe a conflict had happened and the Chest Buster had got shot?

But from what we got. it makes it a bit of a Mystery.. It is a Acid Burn it looks like one..

And from what we have seen is that this happens when a Xenomorph is wounded... its a big wound then... like what happened in Alien Resurrection...

If we assume a wounded Xenomorph caused this... well its a lot for a Chest Buster, i mean how much would even a Space Jockey sized one have as far as Acid?  As the hole in the Space Jockey would seem to indicate a Medium Dog sized Chest Buster at best (based on the 22ft Space Jockey Illusion) to a smaller size dog (15ft Space Jockey).

I guess a Chest Buster the size of a medium Dog or 6-8 year old child could cause that if it was basically squashed....?

The other possible way is what if the Organism can actually secret Acid somehow?

This leads us to wonder why would it want to go down into the Cargo Hold of Eggs back where it came?   Or was there no Eggs?

Also can we 100% prove that the Hole is caused from above?  Could something climbed up and sprayed Acid to get to the Space Jockey?

So indeed its a Mystery and one that makes a good debate that we dont have clues to give us a 100% answer and i am not sure the Hole is something talked about by Ridley or other Production staff..

But maybe SM has some information if that is not the case.

Right now we can assume a likely cause is by the Chest Buster, but then how did it die or get wounded... or did it secrete the Acid?

Troglybites were Facehuggers modified by the Engineers to impregnate the much larger SJ, their masters.

Once the process for refining the eggs into capsules was finished, the Engineers sent the remaining eggs back to the SJ in sabotaged Juggernauts, piloted by slaves modified for transporting hazardous material. Hence the disaster on the SJ homeworld.

The Troglybite egg meant for that particular SJ rotted through the floor after it hatched out of control.

The Troglybite itself attacked an Engineer before it could seal off the vehicle. Hence the disaster on LV223.

The Juggernaut launched but the SJ set the vehicle down on nearby LV426 and set up a beacon to lure the Engineer's children, humans, millennia later. It was then attacked by a Facehugger disturbed by the rotten egg after it melted through the floor, into the chamber below.

The Engineers created humans first as genetic offshoot fodder for their experiments, but divined in them a way to reproduce and create an independent race. But the SJ got wise.

What remains of the Engineers went into hiding from SJ revenge aboard a stolen Teardrop and are in stasis to this day, secreted in a black hole.

In my mind the burster was harmed whilst bursting, perhaps by the engineers suit. It fell to the floor bleeding. The blood pooled before eating it's way through the extremely tough flooring material. The burster fell through the hole and down into the chamber below where it matured into a Queen and laid the eggs.

An engineer stomped and squished a facehugger  creating a stream of acid.

We all like to think the answer is very straightforward, but if we analyze the actual clues left behind we learn there is likely a lot more that took place than initially thought.

What we know for sure:

The Jockey gave birth to a Chestburster. The ribs bent outward, the foreshadowing, that we know.

The Jockey was in the Pilot's chair, fused to the tech it seems. Almost as if restrained there. (?)

No other evidence supports there were more than one Jockey onboard.

The cargo bay housed thousands of Alien eggs. They were not laid there by a Queen, but placed and organized there by Jockeys (or Engineers).

The corroded hole in the floor beside the Jockey was clearly the cause of acid, a function the FACEHUGGER exhibits later on in the film with Kane's suit. No, not the acid blood but the EXCRETION of acid.

What if the hole was not caused by acid dripping down off the Jockey's born Xeno, but by a Facehugger who hatched in the cargo bay below, climbed up and excreted acid into the ceiling until a big enough hole was caused for it to climb through and latch itself on the unsuspecting Jockey? This to me seems more probable.

The metaphorical thought process inside my head though has sprouted another theory based on this timeless debate which I'll share in a new topic so as to not derail this one. But, my best guess is that it was not a conflict between Alien and Jockey, but a stealthy attack by one awoken Facehugger. Sabotage? Perhaps. Carelessness? Perhaps. The will of the "Gods"? Perhaps...

I once had a dream where David and Shaw during their trip to the engineer homeworld came across LV-426,picked up a distress signal,landed on LV-426 to see where the distress signal comes from.David found the crashed derelict and once inside he activated
the holographic recording wich started with SJ boarding and ended with the crash.From what I remember the SJ was in big hurry like he was running from something,he then got attacked by some large xeno like creature but he managed to kill it.The creature bleeded acid and made that hole.The body of the creature fell next to one of the eggs which awoken the facehugger.The facehugger then climbed up and facehugged the SJ when the whole suit covered him in the pilot chair.The facehugger pulled its tentacle through the mouth of the helmet and impregnated him like that,the mouth of the helmet remained open.

The SJ realizing his fate crash landed the ship on LV-426 and set up the distress signal before he got chestbursted.The hologram recording ended with the chestburster bursting from the SJ's chest.

In the end David dropped himself down slowly where the eggs are,studied one egg and said "Impressive" before taking one with himself and returned to his juggernaut and continued the journey to the engineer homeworld.(Shaw was inactive the whole time because she was in the hypersleep).

I dream too much lately I don't know why.

THE END

There is the wound on the space jockey so it must have busted out from his rib cage. The monster that made the hole must have done so using the acid. Since the hole is big then maybe there were more than one that did so?

Perhaps the Xeno (or Xenos, how much acid can one Xeno bleed?) got wounded in some way, bled acid and that in turn caused the hole?

Interesting one this!  Did the hole come from below or above?  Looks melted downwards to me, like something melted down to the egg level, but that's just an impression.

 It certainly makes more sense to me if the thing came from below though i.e. the eggs were in place and one hatched, got out and up, attached to SJ and so on . . .

If it came from above then it's very hard for me to think of a good explanation other than it being killed or injured badly in that place.  Although we don't see it in the film perhaps there was another SJ?  

@Chris Picard, we don't know that Queen didn't lay the eggs and we have no clue as to whether an Engineers has ever actually seen an egg at all. Also we don't actually know that the egg silo is part of the Derelict. I still believe that the Derelict is sitting atop another outpost and the acid hole has eaten it's way through the bottom of the craft and into the roof of the egg Silo. The cavernous Silo is simply way too huge to be part of the Derelict.

It's below ground level.

"we don't know that Queen didn't lay the eggs"

Indeed.

Well - we can surmise that at least one form, the facehugger, can secrete acid. As it did to get through Kane's EVA suit's faceplate.

@S.M... Care to clarify? Why couldn't there be an outpost, silo or pyramid fully or partially underground? Perhaps the sand and silica storms of LV426 have over 200 years buried it. I'm a little confused by your comment.

There could be an outpost, silo or pyramid.

Or, since Kane descended below ground level, the Derelict is simply partially buried.

In theatrical terms as you watch the movie the clues lead you from the busted space jockey, Kane then discovering the hole with the edges singed downwards and moving down into what he calls a cave. 

That could give plausibility to JC's vision of Eggs laid in a silo.

However everything Ridley has said quite recently  (February 2016)  talks about the Croissant being a battle wagon carrying a cargo and why the Jockey had an A L I E N inside him will be revealed according to his reverse engineering through "quite a complicated story".

As Chris said there is collateral evidence that a Xenomorph can secrete Acid as a tool.   

So....without this hole...there wouldn't be a A L I E N movie?

No hole:

Dallas, Kane and Lambert wouldn't find survivors...just a dead alien.

They would return to the Nostromo empty handed. Show everyone their pretty pictures, then message W Y about what they found..... Ash would complain that they didn't do a thorough examination!

Dallas would tell Ash, that while the ship is being repaired, he can explore the derelict .....But! Once the ship is repaired..."they are taking off..with or without you".

Ash grabs Ripley and they set off for the derelict.

They make a close examination of the Jockey chair....Ash finds a Engineers flute....

And Ripley finds Shaw's ring!

The end.

Or.... she finds her mothers ring or some memento...her mother has prevented the hole from being made(no access to the eggs..timeloop closed)...saving Ripley(and Amanda) and the crew of the Nostromo.

W Y sends scientists to examine the derelict 3 or 4 years after the Nostromo, they find the derelict is missing or destroyed.(David has flown it away)

It's a alien "long drop" shitter. 

Very long Diz lol

we just dont know.......yet

Yup, to me it looks like a xenohuahua got a bit excited and in its nervous state wee'd on the panel causing it to melt.  Poor xenohuahua fell through and got lost in the ship somewhere.  Until it followed Dallas and Lambert back to the Nostromo where it bacame friends with Jonesy.  See the picture below:

I think SJ gave birth to a queen.  She set up house in the map room and her egg sac penetrated the floor in order to be able to lay all those eggs below.

Perhaps the SJ was a sacrifice (as the hooded engineer in Prometheus) in order to start a new lifeform on LV-426? He would then already be impregnated with something before landing, the chest would burst as he reached the moon, and what came out (perhaps a queen) would then find a place to propagate (lay eggs) which would be in the cavern underneath the spacecraft (making a hole as she sensed there would be a perfect place there). The SJ might have been ordered to send the signal which lured the passengers of The Nostromo to land there and become the food or way to propagate for the new alien species?

The Jockey warned passing ships to stay away.

The Jockey appears fused to the chair because a merger of the biological and mechanical is Giger's primary art style. For the Space Jockey in ALIEN Giger himself said that "The creature we finally ended up building is biomechanical to the extent that he has physically grown into, or maybe even out of, his seat, - he's integrated totally into the function he performs." (Cinefex 1, p64). In addition, "The pilot is conceived as one of my biomechanoids, attached to the seat so as to form a single unit."  (Giger's Alien p34, 25 July, 1978). Source:

http://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/2008/01/dissecting-derelict-to-explain-more.html

I also agree with Chris on several points. The placement of the eggs was not random as depicted in Cameron's ALIENS but more organized; in addition, we cannot talk about the eggs without also talking about the blue containment beam covering them. The Queen did not place that beam over them, thats for sure. It's probably safe to assume both the beam and the placement of the eggs was done by the Engineers. In addition, and taking the visual evidence into account, the acid did not come from above as a result of a struggle because other structures around the hole would also show acid corrosion (they don't). The Jockey's chair, the circular platform it's on, even the immediate floor surrounding the hole look relatively unscathed, with only the rim showing some scarring and maybe traces of organic debris. As for the hole itself pointing downward and that "proving" the acid came from above... well, there's gravity. As the acid from a Facehugger below eats through the material, gravity is simultaneously kicking in and pulling everything down... so there's that.

"The placement of the eggs was not random as depicted in Cameron's ALIENS but more organized"

The only organization is that they're confined to the lower 'pit' areas of the chamber.  Beyond that, they're just as random as the placement as shown in Aliens.

SM,

Compared the two again and I agree, the egg organization is interchangeable- sorry its been a while! :)

Not at all. :)

If the jockey was attacked by a facehugger (crawling up from the cargo hold) during flight, wouldn’t the spacecraft have crash landed on the moon? Autopilot? On the other hand, if the jockey was attacked after landing, why was he still sitting there (not walking about)?

There's no way to tell if it crash landed or just landed.