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Black stuff on mars? (bring your 3d anaglyph glasses)

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posted on Mar, 30 2012 @ 01:51 AM
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So I was browsing and discovered University of Arizona's HiRISE (high resolution imaging science experiment) site, awesome pictures. In one picture I found this weird black stuff everywhere, but I can't figure out what it is. Maybe you guys can help me:

(click here for full res)^


But they have 3d anaglyph photos on their site too, and I found one with the black stuff, so you can see exactly how this area looks with depth. Everything around it is jagged and rough but this stuff is completely smooth and blobby. Maybe it's something normal but only looks strange from above ?

If you have the cheap red/cyan glasses you can view this in great detail, it's at the bottom of the photo:
preview.tinyurl.com...

I want to think it's just dirt but the texture of it doesnt seem like it. What do you guys think ?

(Link to anaglyph gallery: hirise.lpl.arizona.edu)



posted on Mar, 30 2012 @ 01:57 AM
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If Obama had some stuff, it would look like that.

Seriously though, could that be volcanic sand? Like the black sand beach in Hawaii?



posted on Mar, 30 2012 @ 01:59 AM
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maybe just some sand dunes?

Neat pic just the same.



posted on Mar, 30 2012 @ 02:08 AM
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reply to post by MurrayTORONTO
 


that is so weird and seemingly unlike anything i would expect to see on mars!



posted on Mar, 30 2012 @ 02:09 AM
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reply to post by Frankenchrist
 


If Obama had some stuff, it would look like that.

No it wouldn't... it would be gray.


That's an interesting find OP, I'm curious about it as well.

See ya,
Milt



posted on Mar, 30 2012 @ 02:13 AM
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reply to post by azbowhunter
 

They look like sand dunes to me as well. I wonder what they would look like in color.

See ya,
Milt



posted on Mar, 30 2012 @ 02:50 AM
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They do look like dunes, though if that was so wouldn't the gaps between them be more filled in with whatever meterial the dunes are made from? A more steady gradiant fading out I would imagine as the stuff thins out.



posted on Mar, 30 2012 @ 06:20 AM
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I'm no geologist, but it looks to me like it is an old lava flow that has had sand blown over it.

best I can come up with. Definitely pretty cool looking.



posted on Mar, 30 2012 @ 06:39 AM
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Part of the coloration is to detect the geology by several means one being the albedo differences.

Not sure if I got the right info because I am almost late for work.


Calibration and Measured Parameters
===================================
The radiometric calibration-correction procedure is described here
at a high level. A detailed description will be provided in a
future HiRISE calibration paper.
The radiometric calibration
correction is performed on each individual HiRISE channel file
(EDR) correcting for instrument offset, dark current, gain, then
converting to I/F reflectance.

The first step in the calibration, carried out by the ISIS
(Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers,
http:/isis.astrogeology.usgs.gov/hical) hiclean program, corrects
for instrument dark current and offset. The hiclean program uses
the ancillary calibration data (dark and mask pixels) that
accompany the science data to compute corrections in both the
column (sample) and row (line) directions. The mask pixels,
positioned at the start of the instrument output, provide dark
current information for each column. The dark pixels, positioned
at the end of each image row, capture the time dependent dark
current and offset instrument drift.

The ISIS program then applies an intra-channel B0 (additive dark
current matrix) and A0 (multiplicative gain matrix) correction for
each column in the image array. The hical then converts the pixel
values to I/F (intensity/flux, I/F = 1 for a 100% ideal lambertian
reflector viewed normal to the surface) as described below:

For:
H = dark current and offset corrected image, output of hiclean
B0 = intra-channel dark current correction (TDI & BIN dependent)
A0 = intra-channel gain correction (TDI and BIN dependent)
G = global gain correction, normalizes CCD/channels
L = observation line time
I = I/F conversion factor at Sun-Target distance of 1.5 AU
AU = Mars-to-Sun distance (AU) at time of observation
Z = radiometrically corrected image in I/F units



posted on Mar, 30 2012 @ 06:42 AM
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I don't think the "objects" are actually on Mars.

I think it was added onto the picture, some of the shadows also don't look right, being cast in different directions.

It almost looks like a standard pic of Mars, with these things slapped on afterwards.

vvv



posted on Mar, 30 2012 @ 07:06 PM
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reply to post by MurrayTORONTO
 


They are dunes, and they are not black, they are blueish.

Looking at higher resolutions you can see that for yourself.


At 10%:

At 25%:

At 50%:

At 100%:


As on Earth, dunes move over the ground and act almost as if they were an independent "entity".



posted on Mar, 30 2012 @ 07:08 PM
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Could it not be granite fields?



posted on Mar, 31 2012 @ 08:28 PM
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I do not buy the sand dune fantasy that is being explained.

These are living entities that change shape and sometimes become invisible.Various Mars oddity sites have showed images similar to these Land scrumpers as they have been nicknamed.



posted on Apr, 1 2012 @ 12:33 AM
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Originally posted by paperface
I do not buy the sand dune fantasy that is being explained.

These are living entities that change shape and sometimes become invisible.Various Mars oddity sites have showed images similar to these Land scrumpers as they have been nicknamed.

And I have a penthouse on Neptune up for grabs, too
Come on man, these are most definitely dunes. One can look throughout Western Sahara, Algeria, Libya, etc for example, and see identical dune lines. I suppose those are just Earth versions of your "scrumpers" then?



posted on Apr, 1 2012 @ 01:42 AM
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Namibia crescent dunes


types of dunes
geography.howstuffworks.com...


While riding in a car with Mars researcher Steve Metzger, he explained a lot about dunes on Mars, and dust devils.
Those are sand dunes, and are taken through a filter than enhances the differences between minerals.



posted on Apr, 1 2012 @ 05:06 AM
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Originally posted by paperface
I do not buy the sand dune fantasy that is being explained.
Nobody is trying to sell it.

You can choose the fantasy you want.


These are living entities that change shape and sometimes become invisible.
Dunes act like living entities, moving and changing shape, but not by much.

It would be interesting if you could provide an example of some of those "entities" changing shape and/or becoming invisible, just saying it doesn't help much to support your point of view.


Various Mars oddity sites have showed images similar to these Land scrumpers as they have been nicknamed.
Once more, could you provide some examples?
Thanks in advance.


PS: a Google search for "Land scrumpers" returned 0 results. Did you mistype the name?
edit on 1/4/2012 by ArMaP because: (no reason given)



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