Mystery Particles On Mars

Originally posted by Frobnicate
I think you have mis-understood.

It is this picture that is of something native to Mars. Interesting none the less.

That light spec is exactly that, Light, Sunlight

Looks like a piece of parachute, or maybe something of the vehicle used to drop the rover into place.

Also have we in the past sent up craft to mars that didnt survive?

Looking at the image, something caught my eye. No idea what it is, might just be a small pebble in the "dirt clod", but something about it struck me as strange. Here's the source link for the whole photo:

Source

what I'm looking at is all the way to the right of the picture and past halfway up, here:



Here is a cropped, but scaled up version. I can't scale it anymore or it becomes pixelated of course:



working the land like I do where I live here my first thought was: roots.

I was like: especially since the martian soil looks moist to my eyes. but I think my eyes are playing tricks on me. Still, it looks very interesting to me.

Originally posted by SolidGoal
reply to post by impaired

 

Yeah I realized that after listening to the live stream, and reading Miniatus posts.
Sorry about that.
Still interesting nonetheless.

That it is. I wonder what they could be (the things inside the scoop/under the soil)...

Okay, it's official: I have to stop reading Arken's threads!

Now he's got me suffering from Pareidolia and seeing things that are not really there!

I zoomed in a little further on my picture, and rotated it about 45 deg clockwise.....and got this:



Anyone else see a deformed "A" and "E"???



Wait! I got it! It's a piece of the AE-35 module from Discovery! Quick! Someone get Dr. Heywood Floyd!

(for those that do not get the joke: 2001: A Space Odyssey )

reply to post by crackfox


i dont know about the spec but the sand looks like its full of rabbit pellets.

reply to post by eriktheawful



The real conspiracy here is that the AE-35 module was still in perfect working condition after a faulty diagnosis made by HAL, what is it doing on mars ??? OMG

reply to post by impaired

I am no expert in geology, but I am going out on a limb and guess that it will probably be related again to the presence of water in Mars past.
Or something completely different...

Any geologist care to speculate ?

Originally posted by Frobnicate
I think you have mis-understood.

The picture in the OP is of a piece from the rover.

It is this picture that is of something native to Mars. Interesting none the less.

They said during the Mission update Teleconference yesterday that they plan to use the ChemCam on that object (the object in your link). They said they think it could be native to the martian soil, as is possibly a cleaved peice of mineral -- with a flat face that is reflecting light.

The rover is not currently in the proper position to be able to use the ChemCam on this object yet, but after they are done analyzing the the dirt they just scooped, they will return to the bright object.

The ChemCam can me aimed very accurately, and would be able to tell them the general chemistry of that exact object relative to the other bits of sand grains around it. The rover also has an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) it uses for scooped samples that can give a moredetailed chemical makeup of soil that it samples (more detailed than the Chem Cam), but there is no way to ONLY sample that bright object using the APXS. The ChemCam CAN study just the bright object.

Curious to know what they find. New image deposited by scoop and streaked by the Martian winds looks like silica or salt.



www.spaceflight101.com...

reply to post by martinkb


The reptilian aliens on Mars are SHEDDING!!!!

Looks kinda like snake skin......No??

It's not part of the rover.

news.yahoo.com...

So now they've found a bunch of these mystery chunks.