Originally posted by Heliocentric

Source link:

photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...

When I find a Mars or Moon anomaly picture that really intrigues me, I've almost made it into a habit to pop over to the Department of Geology (at the university where I work) and show it to a friend.

I ask him what it is, and when he seems a bit perplexed and ask me what region the anomaly is from, I tell him something like "The Aristarchus plateau on the Moon" with a grin. Why make it easy for him?

So I came across this THEMIS picture (courtesy of JPL) that looks like... well, good question. I consulted my geologist friend again what kind of geological process could create this, his reaction was; "Is this one of your Mars pictures again?" I guess I've been over there a bit too often lately.

In any case, he had no clear answer, not being an extraterrestial geologist. Certain features in this anomaly does remind me of fossilized exoskeleton organisms present here on Earth. Not that I want to make that connection just yet, because why would any presumed fossilized Martian organism look anything like an Earth organism? Another problem is the size of this thing. A paleontological guess was of course excluded to my friend. "If you got it from the internet, my guess is it's fake" was his last word. The problem is, it comes straight from NASA's own server, so if it's fake we have another problem on our hands.

NASA generally have ready-to-go explanations for most Martian anomalies, but they seem a bit stumped by this one, even if they do refer to it as a "sand dune".

A Trilobite fossil

Perhaps someone with in-depth knowledge of geology or asteroid impacts could help me out here. Could an impact create this type of skidmark, do similar examples exist here on Earth or on nearby planets and moons?

Analytical skills are more welcome than your out-of-the-box guesses, but please hit me with what you've got!

This may even have been caused by the Mars moon Phobos. Phobos has the closest orbit of any moon at only around 5800 miles.