Remember the russian probe that went toast by a cigar looking ufo. Overlooking phobos. I think it's kind of like that.

Please remeber you are comparing your ideas and what you know and have learned on earth to another planet, we may not have the same things here.

I travel all the time and average 2 countires a year and still see new things all the time that blow my mind. I can only imagine what other planets hold.

Good work as always.

Really interesting photo Zorgon, I am not sure if its E.T but it does stir up intriguement.

Am I the only one that believes that Mars has a breathable atmosphere,purple sky,plantation and is already inhabited (by us)

Those are most likely dunes. Barchan dunes to be precise.

That 'herd' featuring in the OP marching in a straight line definately looks like some crazy things are going on there, but I think taking the rest of the picture into account these are quite clearly sand dunes, this part of the image makes this particularly clear:



I think the reason why these dunes contrast so starkly is due to the underlying surface on which they have formed. If we look closer at the patches of land between the dunes like this (minor contrast enhancement):



it appears fairly smooth with a consistent cracked-paint texture. At first I thought this surface may be an ice sheet, but as the image appears to have been taken near the equator this is unlikely. Furthermore the texture of the surface very much resembles that of deserts on Earth:



Flat terrains such as these provide ideal habitats for the growth of barchan dunes. The formation of which often begin due to isolated objects being stranded in the middle of these flat surfaces, these objects include things such as rocks, small shrubs or slight elevations and depressions on the surface. This image illustrates some fledgling dunes:



Ok, I've had a go at making some illustrations demonstrating this principle
As you can see in the first image an object on a plane across which sand is being blown will create an obstruction into which dust will become caught, the object also creates a small shelter from the wind immediately behind it at which point dust is deposited and accumulated:





Once these small dunes have developed the continue to grow and become sculpted by the wind depending the manner in which it blows. The formation of these particular Barchan dunes is illustrated as such:



Im pretty sure this makes for a strong case that they are indeed dunes, the images from mars look remarkably similar to the dunes illustrated above:



And if you're still convinced that these are too alien to be dunes; this is taken in an area called the Empty Quarter somewhere in Arabia:



[edit on 29-8-2008 by The_Modulus]

Ooops! Double post!

[edit on 29-8-2008 by mikesingh]

Originally posted by zorgon

PUBLIC NOTICE:

Effective Immediately

Anyone stating an item in a photograph is "Just a Rock" is required to:

1) Give the type of rock
2) Explain how that rock was formed
3) Explain how that rock came to be at the location it is found in
4) describe in point form your expertise in geology
5) submit documentation to back your claim of it being a rock

Failure to meet these requirements may mean your comment is rejected by this office. An unqualified statement of 'its just a rock..' is no more valid than a statement 'its a building'

Memo #NASA345ATS2008-A1
Date 08-28-2008

So what happens if someone comments it's NOT a rock but a sand dune? Is the above notice therefore applicable in such a case and therefore such comment also rejected?

You know EVERY time you make a dramatic claim before getting analysis and input from others you are just doing more to DAMAGE the entire field of anomalous research. Everytime you see a rock and claim its an alien or creatures you make all other considerations and evalutations that much less credible and when something is found people will be leary of believing it because they will be reminded of all of these dramatic declarations that were made without proof previously.

Do us a favor and do some research before making a grandios and sensational claim about another photo. PLEASE!

They do look very odd, but of course an alien breed would look odd to someone that has never seen them lol. What gets me is if you look each one closely, you can see the ground around it looks almost like it is indented. Kinda like its IN the ground a little bit.

Well, it's obviously been proven that those are dunes, but nobody knows what those plants are doing on top of them lol.

-Jimmy

They look like igloos or little huts.

Why are people so quick to jump to the "martian" idea. I believe just as much as the next guy, but you people need to get off the gas. Not everyting on mars is an alien base, building, or in this case animal. This is clearly martian land formations, not an animal. See what you want to see, but not everything is alien.