http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/image/01434/1434MR0070880110702725E01_DXXX.html
(http://www.midnightplanets.com/data/MSLRawJPG/01434/1434MR0070880110702725E01_DXXX.JPG)
This got posted on the 'Moran' site by a Chinese guy, now getting ridiculed for claiming 'blocks' on Mars.
However, I find the odd bumpy surfaces to be interesting, as well as something that looks - maybe - sort of honeycombed.
I have a back yard full of slate that often separates into layers, exposing tiny,bumpy-looking surfaces of fossil shells such as this.
(edit to add photo-seeker)
Why do you find it interesting? It just looks like a load of rocks to me. I might be being a bit thick and I've missed something so sorry in advance if I am. ;D
Well, the Chinese guy is right........."blocks"....... of rocks!! :)
Quote from: rdunk on February 22, 2017, 10:58:00 PM
Well, the Chinese guy is right........."blocks"....... of rocks!! :)
I believe the Chinese fellow is of the opinion that some of the material in evidence was part of a structure with smoothed surfaces such as floor tiles or walls... with some of the anomalies that we have examined ourselves on Pegasus it is difficult to determine without having a lot more to go on...
boots on the ground would make things a lot easier 8)
Sarge, could you take a look at it and see if you spot anything?
8)
Seeker
If you look carefully (especially on a big blow up of the picture) it appears that most are flat, as slate is. However, I see a few of the pieces with odd bumpy surfaces and one possibly with holes or honeycomb features.
It's those that interest me because this sort of stuff is scattered in my backyard. Often, the bumpy surface ones look that way because they cracked along a large inclusion of fossil shells. Hence, my curiosity......
Quote from: Eighthman on February 23, 2017, 02:27:27 AM
If you look carefully (especially on a big blow up of the picture) it appears that most are flat, as slate is. However, I see a few of the pieces with odd bumpy surfaces and one possibly with holes or honeycomb features.
It's those that interest me because this sort of stuff is scattered in my backyard. Often, the bumpy surface ones look that way because they cracked along a large inclusion of fossil shells. Hence, my curiosity......
Yes, it would be very interesting if a large cache of fossils were revealed 8) considering the current line of dribble espoused about the possibility of life once existing on Mars...
but the chances of the rover taking closer, better, pics of any of it are slim and none...
Zorgon, we are going to have to send our own rover up there 8)
Seeker
Quote from: Eighthman on February 23, 2017, 02:27:27 AM
It's those that interest me because this sort of stuff is scattered in my backyard. Often, the bumpy surface ones look that way because they cracked along a large inclusion of fossil shells. Hence, my curiosity......
The rocks look like shale.
(http://www.industryweek.com/site-files/industryweek.com/files/uploads/2013/06/shale.jpg)
Shale is sedimentary rock formed at the bottom of oceans. You do find fossils in shale. The Burgess Shale contains some spectacular amazingly preserved 500M year old examples.
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/07/28/b8/0728b8bc849ca52fb6562b0249bfb4e9.jpg)
(http://susannamcleod.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/SM-BurgessShale2.jpg)
If I was going to look for evidence of Martian life, then rock formed at the bottom of ancient oceans of a type known to produce well preserved fossils on earth is exactly the sort of place I'd look. ;)
It is my contention (I'll try to do a thread on this to nail the point once and for all) that if life has existed on Mars then it still does. Life has now been found still alive inside quartz crystals deep underground after being trapped for 10,000 to 50,000 years!!! Life is unbelievably persistant once it is established.
Thumbs up for looking in the right places. 8)
QuoteFor eight years, Boston and her colleagues have been studying microbes deep inside the Naica lead, silver and zinc mine. Some microorganisms were discovered trapped in fluid pockets inside massive crystals of calcium sulfate. Analysis suggests that the microbes may have been tucked away in these tiny time capsules for 10,000 to 50,000 years and may have been dormant for some or all of that time. But they "remained viable in some fashion and were able to be regrown," she said. Her team reawakened the microbes in the lab and studied their genetic material, along with genetic material from other organisms found in the walls of the cave and other areas near the crystals.
"Any extremophile system that we're studying actually allows us to push the envelope of life further," Boston said. "We add it to this atlas of possibilities that we can apply to different planetary settings."
(https://www.sciencenews.org/sites/default/files/2017/02/main/articles/021717_AY_mexico-microbes_main.jpg)
Microbes survived inside giant cave crystals for up to 50,000 years (https://www.sciencenews.org/article/microbes-survived-inside-giant-cave-crystals-50000-years)