Mars, An Alpine Vacation

I've been saving up various photos from the official archives of NASA and its various affiliates of the planet Mars, for awhile now (a few years). The following are some hotspots that drew my attention because of their odd appearance. Some appear to be structures, some appear to be worms or shiny metallic arcs/circles/orbs, or water spouts out of tubes as if the tubes were water conduits (artifical structures). Some of these I still have the original huge photos for, so I can give the references. Been awhile I'm not sure which archive they are from, but they are all from official Mars sources. What do YOU make of these oddities? I've named them for the things within them that I find to be odd, unless otherwise indicated by colored lines or circles. Several of these are from or close to the polar regions, north and south.

Anyway, without further ado,

Shadows



Pedestal




This scene just seemed so reminiscent of a mountain valley with pines, a meandering river and snow covered mountain slopes:

An Alpine Vacation on Mars




Orbs with Tails?




Machine? Monument? Metallic Something or Other?




Crashed Disk?




Light in a Cave?





Water Spouting from Bulge in Tube?




Emerging and Submerging Tube




Shiny Metal Thingamagigs

And yet more weird things on Mars. Feel free to chime in on what you think these might be:

Mars Square

(applied gamma correction so the entire square structure can be seen)

Home on the Range. An odd thing. Plant? Critter? Ranch with Fence, Backyard Garden, sitting partially under the branches of some plant or tree?



Errr, what is it?!


Hobbit House complete with chimney, front door slightly ajar and front sidewalk! lol Actually, it looks like some kind of weird growth, emitting or spouting a trail of sand, water or something else.



"Rectangles" This has several squares/rectangles in it






[edit on 30-11-2006 by undo]

Some of them seem reasonable interesting, specially the one of what appears to a source of reflexion (light?) in that gully type feature.

Where can someone like me find the original images?

jmlima,

lots of stuff here:
ida.wr.usgs.gov...

and here:
www.msss.com...
www.msss.com...

and here:
photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...

and here:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

and here (not official site but lists where they are from and the numbers):
www.marsunearthed.com...



[edit on 30-11-2006 by undo]

Originally posted by undo
jmlima,

lots of stuff here:
ida.wr.usgs.gov...

and here:
www.msss.com...
www.msss.com...

and here:
photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...

and here:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

and here (not official site but lists where they are from and the numbers):
www.marsunearthed.com...



[edit on 30-11-2006 by undo]

thanks. it will take a while to go through that...

is there a way to quickly refer the extracts you posted to the original image?

Some I can't find the originals for so i don't know what their names were. But I can point you to a few.

This is the one i named "Light in a Cave":
www.msss.com...

This is the one I named "Emerging and Submerging Tube":
www.msss.com...

This is the one I named "Water Spouting from Bulge in Tube":
ida.wr.usgs.gov...

This is the one I named "Shadows" and also in the second post called "Errr, what is it?"
www.msss.com...

This one may contain some of the darker pieces, which were in the area where Arthur C. Clarke's "Trees" are, some of which I had to brighten and resize considerably to find them in. Surprisingly, they showed up quite nicely when brightened, but were nearly impossible to see otherwise:
ida.wr.usgs.gov...


(edit: "Home on the Range" is from the one above ida.wr.usgs.gov... )

(edit: "Crashed Disk" is from the one above ida.wr.usgs.gov... )

(edit: "Shiny Metal Thingamagigs" is from the one above ida.wr.usgs.gov... )


(edit: "Pedestal" is from the famous Tube picture"
www.msss.com... )

(edit: "An Alpine Vacation" is from the same one as "Light in a Cave"
www.msss.com...



[edit on 30-11-2006 by undo]

Originally posted by undo
Some I can't find the originals for so i don't know what their names were. But I can point you to a few.

This is the one i named "Light in a Cave":
www.msss.com...

This is the one I named "Emerging and Submerging Tube":
www.msss.com...

This is the one I named "Water Spouting from Bulge in Tube":
ida.wr.usgs.gov...

This is the one I named "Shadows" and also in the second post called "Errr, what is it?"
www.msss.com...

This one may contain some of the darker pieces, which were in the area where Arthur C. Clarke's "Trees" are, some of which I had to brighten and resize considerably to find them in. Surprisingly, they showed up quite nicely when brightened, but were nearly impossible to see otherwise:
ida.wr.usgs.gov...

Many,many thanks, I'll have a good look at them later.

One point I would add, it would be always useful to keep a copy of the original image with the original name for future reference, that will allow to post later the extract together with the image.

Yeah, like I said, I started collecting them years ago and probably deleted the originals of some at one point, because the files were so big. probably from my older computer which was about an eighth of the size memory-wise as this computer). I'm updating the list you asked for, as I find them, so check back.

Sources for above images:

"Shadows" and also in the second post called "Errr, what is it?"
www.msss.com...

"Pedestal" is from the famous Tube picture
www.msss.com...

"Light in a Cave" and also "An Alpine Vacation"
www.msss.com...

"Water Spouting from Bulge in Tube":
ida.wr.usgs.gov...

"Emerging and Submerging Tube":
www.msss.com...

"Home on the Range" and "Crashed Disk" and "Shiny Metal Thingamagigs" and "Machine? Monument? Metallic Something or Other?"
ida.wr.usgs.gov...

I haven't been able to find the source for "Hobbit House", "Mars Square", "Orbs with Tails" or "Rectangles" but I'm working on it.



[edit on 30-11-2006 by undo]

"Eggsactly" what the freak is it?


Source
barsoom.msss.com...

And not far from there .....

"Hatchery" What is this stuff?


Same source as above
barsoom.msss.com...

Originally posted by undo
...
This is the one I named "Shadows" and also in the second post called "Errr, what is it?"
www.msss.com...
...

Taking one at a time, plenty to digest in here....

I would say that this are not shadows, maybe some error on the data transmission.

Basically , none of the shadows follows the contour of the terrain, they seem to be superimposed over, also interestingly , even the darker of the 'shadows' is still clearer when closed up than the black of the craters on the terrain. Also, they seem to be rather random shapes , at one place you have 2 similar shapes with 2 different colours, however the lighter is not necessarily a sort of semi-transparent thing casting a shadow, it's also a solid shape , just lighter than the other , which in my view makes it unlikely to be a shadow. What it is exactely? ermmm...

Originally posted by jmlima


I would say that this are not shadows, maybe some error on the data transmission.

Basically , none of the shadows follows the contour of the terrain, they seem to be superimposed over, also interestingly , even the darker of the 'shadows' is still clearer when closed up than the black of the craters on the terrain. Also, they seem to be rather random shapes , at one place you have 2 similar shapes with 2 different colours, however the lighter is not necessarily a sort of semi-transparent thing casting a shadow, it's also a solid shape , just lighter than the other , which in my view makes it unlikely to be a shadow. What it is exactely? ermmm...

Actually, those are all over the place on mars. In varying amounts. Some people call them dust devils because when a wind whips up, they break free of their moorings. and spiral around inside the actual dust devil, and eventually fall to the surface, where they leave dark smudges on the ground in long streaks. I have no clue what they are, but they appear to be anchored to the sides of craters and other places where direct sunlight is less likely.

"A Chorus Line" (a neat little row of erm, those shadow thingies in individual cells)


Source
barsoom.msss.com...

Originally posted by undo
(edit: "Pedestal" is from the famous Tube picture"
www.msss.com... )
...

Ok, the pedestal I don't see it, but that original image, whow... those 'tubular' formations in the lowest part of the image look... alien...
No really , they look, strange, is there any known explication for them?
I would almost say that they look like some tubular network that went bad, on a geological failure...
Very interesting...

jmlima,

The pedestal is laying on the ground. The surface where you might sit a statue or something on a pedestal, is closest to the camera. it's a flat, hexagonal shape, with the stem of the pedestal stretching off in the distance towards the tube.

here it is with the shape better outlined.


compare


the thing in the tube? no idea. looks like a worm of some sort to me. every time i see those "orbs with tails", it reminds me of frank herbert's "Dune".


[edit on 30-11-2006 by undo]

Originally posted by undo
...
(edit: "An Alpine Vacation" is from the same one as "Light in a Cave"
www.msss.com...
...

It's a heck of a beautiful barren landscape, hardly alpine , if by alpine you include woods and romantic lakes, et all.

The light in a cave is actually an interesting example, when seen as a detached small image , it does look odd , it does look like a light or reflection source inside a cave, however this is somewhat similar situations to others you see around in more images, I must confess I still cannot fathom exactelly if this things are reflective surfaces (which would be odd) or is from the images that tend top show this areas as almost pure white, even though in reality they would be just high spots...

Originally posted by undo
jmlima,

The pedestal is laying on the ground. The surface where you might sit a statue or something on a pedestal, is closest to the camera. it's a flat, hexagonal shape, with the stem of the pedestal stretching off in the distance towards the tube.
...

I see what you mean, It does seem to have a couple of straight lines, pedestal or no pedestal, nature doesn't usually creates straight lines...

Originally posted by undo

(edit: "Crashed Disk" is from the one above ida.wr.usgs.gov... )
...

Welllll... you will agree that it's a bit to push your luck to see a crash disk in there...

Seing these images makes one wonder about all the geological features in Mars, some of them are awfully strange , to say the least. I'm still thinking in those 'tube' like things, I'm trying to find some info on those features...

Aye, I didn't know what it was, so i just called it what it looked like. what struck me was the albedo of the material along the edge. Could be anything really, but looks like an edge on view of something metallic. could be a square or even a rectangle or some natural thing that has a high reflectivity, not sure.

Originally posted by jmlima

Originally posted by undo
jmlima,

The pedestal is laying on the ground. The surface where you might sit a statue or something on a pedestal, is closest to the camera. it's a flat, hexagonal shape, with the stem of the pedestal stretching off in the distance towards the tube.
...

I see what you mean, It does seem to have a couple of straight lines, pedestal or no pedestal, nature doesn't usually creates straight lines...

it's actually a hexagon, which could be an insect created thing or even a crystal of some sort, but at this point, it looks erm, suspicious.