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Extra-Strange Rock on Mars!


Way_Beyond

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How has this recent find flown so low under "the radar of public scrutiny?" This is of reasonably recent vintage - Jan 26th /06. None of the major Space News sites have carried it!! Turn back! - we want a better look! We deserve a better look!! And not just another never-to-be-resolved mystery < that's not the stuff of science. Path looks to be pretty clear for a close-in look (especially on the right hand side.) What is going on? Helllo? Wake up call for Mr. Steve Squyres! Get on the horn - people.

Rock shows characteristic friction-induced aerodynamic smoothing (imho.) Also notice linear striations in "soil" - a light, somewhat regular corrugation - between Mars rover and rock in question. No good theories on dual-nature of this particular specimen. Comment was made - "Why would someone wrap a big piece of watermelon in a towel and leave it on the beach?" ;)

I'm thinking some kind of stange skull bone! :w00t: Any ideas?? Google for "two-tone +mars" < brings it up right away.

Astronomy Pic of the Day < only site that carried this .....

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Pareidolia is a type of illusion or misperception involving a vague or obscure stimulus being perceived as something clear and distinct. Seeing faces in semi-random or random patterns is a well-understood psychological phenomenon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

Common examples include images of animals or faces in clouds, seeing the man in the moon,Face on Mars and hearing messages on records played in reverse.

Human beings are apparently "hard-wired" to identify the human face.

Edited by hazzard
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That was addressed very well in "Broca's Brain" by one of my fav authors

It's looks for all the world like a busted milk carton to me.

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Could be a harder conglomeration of whatever softer rock formed the dunes behind it.

Could also be an extremely hard meteorite that is now exposed due to dust storms and wind.

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I wanna go look at it!

Dammit!

We need to send humans up there.

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Theres also an indian chief in their. At the bottom right in front of the rover.

I'm sorry I take it all back - it's just my eyes playing tricks on me - it's all an optical illusion. The whole planet is an optical illusion. It's just swamp gas reflecting off Venus. Personally I like the busted milk carton explanation the best. I can't imagine it's a brain - Broca's or otherwise. Perhaps it's Broca's skull. It would be quite an unusual skull series - surely that would merit closer inspection.

I have to discount the watermelon hypothesis - a watermelon would have evaporated long ago.

Surely a chondrite would break up more thoroughly - it looks pretty fresh so where's the crater this sizeable meteor(ite) would have generated? eh Chief? Verdict is still out and will remain out - Broca's Brain not-with-standing. We need to go back! Straight up! I'm not looking for volunteers - this is a dangerous mission - one where failure is not only unacceptable but severly punished. It's going to be a solo mission - and since I posted here first... I get to go! Simple as that. Snooze you lose!

Edited by Way_Beyond
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I'm sorry I take it all back - it's just my eyes playing tricks on us - it's all an optical illusion. The whole planet is an optical illusion. It's just swamp gas reflecting off Venus. Personally I like the busted milk carton explanation the best so far. Makes the most sense. Who would wrap a watermelon in a towel?

Surely a chondrite would break up more thoroughly - it looks pretty fresh so where's the crater this sizeable meteor would have created? eh Chief? Verdict is still out and will remain out - Broca's Brain not-with-standing. We need to go back! Straight up! End of discussion!

There's no reason to believe it would have broken up more thoroughly. We have perfectly intact meteorites with perfectly fused surfaces on this planet. We have no idea what the surface conditions were like when it struck. The light color and fuse surface would seem to indicate a carbonaceous chondrite. It's actual size is debatable as well. As for a crater, again surface conditions would have played a role (mars was quite wet at one time) and erosion can erase many signs of a crater. Below is an image of a what was determined to be a meteor out in the middle of nowhere with no sign of a crater. I'm not saying that's what it is for sure but it can't be ruled out from that image. Only sampling would determine for sure.

post-29590-1138989095.jpg

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LOL, A cat with a space helmet made from... a watermelon?

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That rock somehow doesent fit in with the rest of the picture....Then again it could just be a weird shaped rock.I dont think its anything very mysterious though!

Peace :tu:

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I know I know but I'm going to say it anyway. The muti colored rock almost looks as if the 2 different colors in the rock, look as though they were carved to fit together crazy. I know but what the hell :P

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It is the severed head of an alien cadaver. The dark coloured portion of the cranium is the jaw with a protective armor plate around it. To the right of the jaw is an eye. Look reall hard at it. Its lieing on the back of the head, looking upwards. Sexy, isnt it?

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It is the severed head of an alien cadaver. The dark coloured portion of the cranium is the jaw with a protective armor plate around it. To the right of the jaw is an eye. Look reall hard at it. Its lieing on the back of the head, looking upwards. Sexy, isnt it?

I really really hope you're joking

It's a cool rock, but nothing that uncommon. Here's an Earthly 2 tone rock...

http://www.rockroost.com/images/YLE24.jpg

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No matter what, that still is a really cool looking rock. I know that if I were exploring Mars in person, I would at least pick it up!

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How has this recent find flown so low under "the radar of public scrutiny?" This is of reasonably recent vintage - Jan 26th /06. None of the major Space News sites have carried it!! Turn back! - we want a better look! We deserve a better look!! And not just another never-to-be-resolved mystery < that's not the stuff of science. Path looks to be pretty clear for a close-in look (especially on the right hand side.) What is going on? Helllo? Wake up call for Mr. Steve Squyres! Get on the horn - people.

Rock shows characteristic friction-induced aerodynamic smoothing (imho.) Also notice linear striations in "soil" - a light, somewhat regular corrugation - between Mars rover and rock in question. No good theories on dual-nature of this particular specimen.

I'm thinking some kind of stange skull bone!

The image is typical of some very unusual rock formations found on Mars.

All of this skips under the radar of public scrutiny, because the general public doesn't, in large part, know or care that we have rovers cruising around on Mars taking thousands of pictures and have been for a couple years or so. Not many Spirit / Opportunity images are even known of generally speaking...save of course to those of us who are interested enough to look.

This image is on the Spirit site, along with all the others.

There are no good theories about this particular rock because its too early to theorize about it. Nothing all too unusual about the fact that everything about this rock is speculation at this point.

We can only hope that you're joking about the strange skull bone idea....especially one with "friction induced aerodynamic smoothing" :wacko:

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Looks like some kind of giant snail, or an ant eater. Quite cute really.

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<_< It looks like a really crappy job done on Photoshop.

Come on, guys, you can't tell me you're SERIOUSLY thinking this photo is real!

The gradations are off, the pixilation is off. It's not even a good c&p job. I can do a better fake than that.....using MS Paint. ^_^

Later,

The Oracle

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<_< It looks like a really crappy job done on Photoshop.

Come on, guys, you can't tell me you're SERIOUSLY thinking this photo is real!

The gradations are off, the pixilation is off. It's not even a good c&p job. I can do a better fake than that.....using MS Paint. ^_^

Later,

The Oracle

:rolleyes:

Yup, NASA is just publishing fake pictures now. :rolleyes:

It would help if you knew what you were talking about.

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Amazing how every picture that raises an eyebrow these days is accompanied by a photoshop comment. Annoying.

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Thanks all for your well-crafted, well-structured responses. In pursuing the meteorite hypothesis - I have sent this NASA photo link to a half a dozen 'meteorite guru's' - asking for 'their take' on matters. Should prove interesting.

Learned a new word today.. regmaglypt...regmaglypts are the Swiss cheese thumb-print-like impressions decorating the of classic irony meteorites - not particularly evindent in this photo/specimen. ... More soon. :)

Link to the following journal abstract

Abstract

An investigation of the regmaglyptic reliefs on 5500 individual samples of the Sikhote-Aline meteorite shower was conducted. Five different types of regmaglyptic outlines were discussed: polygonal, round, amygdaloid (almond-shaped), furrow-shaped, and indefinite. Various characteristic features of the regmaglypt meteorites were discussed including the regmaglyptic rosettes on the front face of the meteorites. The relationship between the diameter, the index and the meteorite diameter were measured for half of the total meteorite shower specimens and were classified into nine categories according to mass. It was determined that among meteorites of both iron and stone types it is possible to find completely smooth-faced ones without any regmaglyptic relief, although they did not differ in either composition or structure from the meteorites showing distinct regmaglyptic reliefs.

Fairly readable overview of "things meteoritic."

as regarding terrestrial meteorite "infall frequency..."

Particles of a gram or more in weight (about the size of a small pea), are estimated to fall at a rate of less than 8 per square mile per year. Similarly, objects of about 10 grams in weight (approximately a U.S. Quarter sized stone sphere) fall at something less than the rate of 1 per 1,000 square miles per year. And ... as the size of the object gets larger & larger, the rate of in-fall becomes exponentially less, so that one could expect an object over one Kilo (approx. 2.2 lbs or about baseball size) falls to Earth (in a given 1 square mile area) only about once every 50,000 to 100,000 years!! Estimates for meteoritic in-fall rates - vary widely, the above numbers are in all likelyhood over-stating the infall frequency...

......There is less total known meteoritic material on Earth, inclusive of all known collected varieties (excepting meteoritic dust infall) - than recovered terrestrial gold. Most of our meteorites originated as the bodies of Asteroids

Edited by Way_Beyond
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Well have yet to hear back from the meteorite Top Guns - hardly surprising as it's only been an hour or so :P So in the mean time - I thought I should do a bit of home-spun image analysis... I took the inverse of the original - it's negative. Perhaps some interesting things to note...

1) structure in question seems photogramatically coherent with surrounding under-rock shading (especially in comparison with smaller rocks) - first large rock left of structure seems unusually dark (light) and 'blotchy.'

2) structure seems less out-of-scale than in original positive image - lending further support to non-touched-up hypothesis.

3) interesting faceting to central portion (the skull case :) )

also.....

4) notice small speck on horizon...possibly a model 534-ZZ Tholian observation platform

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