that's interesting, it does look like a plank of wood, but I am pretty sure we're going to hear it's a rock of some sort.

btw what the shiny thing in the background, sticking up from the sand? another rock?

I guess it will all be explained away like everything else.

Interesting, though.

Man that really if amazing looking and what is that shiny object??

I would say the thing in the background is the lander, and the wood is part of the rock formation around it. - just exposed and eroded rock with sedimentary layers.

There appear to be tracks running right to the "wood" made by the robot so it may have been more closely looked at.

This must be an early pic, from last year, if the background is the lander...

The "wood" looks far too out of place with the surroundings to be part of a exposed weathered layer of rock.Very intriguing..Though it looks photoshopped.

That shiny object seems like the equipment that the Mars Rover left behind. You can see the tracks of the vehicle, and they seem to be coming from the same direction where the white object is. But it could be something else too.

I think the craziest thing on that pic is the "wood plank". Perhaps the NASA will explain it as being a rock, but it's too damn angular and regularly-shaped to have been made by nature... especially in a place where there are no other "rocks" like this one...

I'm not 100% sure if I am reading this right, but the image is from Opportunity and the date is 2004, 05, 24

wouldn't the lander have been too far away by then????

The white thingy is the parachute, and backshell, which seperated just after the airbags Inflated..Then it was a freefall. and a few bounces for the lander.

The thing that looks like a Railroad tie?.
It's a rock..There are a bunch of them that look like that..I'd have to surf
through all the old pics to find more..But I am willing to do it, in the next few days.

I don't think that we would find wood on mars. Petrified rock maybe but never wood. Things of that nature have been long dead on mars and would certainly not survive millions or perhaps billions of years of time on mars.

It appears to be a pic from the Opportunity lander as it was just arriving near Endurance crater. Which would make the thing in the background the Heat Shield from memory? (I think the chute landed over closer to Eagle Crater, where Opportunity landed).

Opportunity entered Endurance towards the end of June from memory, so 24th May would make sense for this picture.

This is pretty interesting as it does look like a piece of wood. As stated though, it's probably just an eroded rock formation but it does look quite Conspicuous sticking out there like that. The color is also strikinly different but that could just be caused by middle layers of the rock being exposed.

Maybe I am seeing things but the picture I get has a buildings in the forefront.

removed as it was too far expanded.

[edit on 12/2/04 by SomewhereinBetween]

Have you noticed this censored thing in the solar panels?

It is a rock, I am very open minded, especially to the thought of structures on mars, but look at the surrounding rocks, flat, sharpe edges, take one of those rocks, and jut it out of the sand on an angle. We have the same rock formations here, its called slate or sheet rock.

WOAH WOAH WOAH WHAT A MINUTE....i only looked at the pic without maximizing its size....it does look like an old peice of wood.

but i could photo shop that in about an hour. so its iffy.

[Edit: looked at the pic twice]

[edit on 2-12-2004 by _BLiND_]

I don't think that we would find wood on mars. Petrified rock maybe but never wood. Things of that nature have been long dead on mars and would certainly not survive millions or perhaps billions of years of time on mars.

ISeeYou... although your respect, I think you've missed the point. I know that it's highly unlikely that we find wood, or even petrified wood, into such an hostile environment. The point here is that we are facing an evidence that this pic is a fake... just as all the other pics that came from the Mars Rover. Of course that could be a rock, but as I jsut said, it's too damn angular for having been shaped by nature and there are no other rocks that are even close to this one in this area.

The other problem -which is the biggest issue here I think- is that the NASA have'nt said a word about this object. Even if that would be a rock, it's so peculiar that they would have reported it in the news... it would have been under study... I mean this thing just doesn't fit with the environment around and it looks like it's been there for a long time. Isn't it interesting enough for any study?

We clearly see by the tracks that the Rover PASSED right on the object, but nobody has said anything about it!

It's rock. What you're seeing as "wood pattern" is an illusion.

The rock is tilted slightly and its edge faces the camera. As you can see, rocks in this area are fairly flat. There's a couple others in the photo that are tilted so the broken edge faces the camera.

If you check other pictures where the rover is approaching this feature, you'll see it's just a rock.

why does every keep thinking it might be photoshopped?

isnt the link nasa offical site??

Even if it IS a piece of wood or beam or some non-natural object, NASA is going to come out and say the pic was faked by someone and is a trick. They will NEVER admit it is a man-made (or alien-made) object.

NEVER!!!!!

Originally posted by CookieMonster000
Have you noticed this censored thing in the solar panels?

I don't believe that's censored, so much as that part of the image either wasn't processed properly or there was a bad photo cell.