Curiosity: Potential Anomalies (Update 01/2014)

originally posted by: Blue Shift
This latest stretch of Martian real estate is pretty boring. As I've said, I like the transitional areas between two different types of terrain, especially if they contain some kind of accumulation of mud and stones.

mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

Oh come on everyone. If everyone here can't agree that this is one potential (what I call a 1% chance of being a fossil) area that deserves more professional eyes on it. Paleobiology, marine biology, the spirits of the long dead ancestors, and other forms of scientific know-how and hocus pocus, ought to at least glance at this one. I can see several more potential outlines in there, in addition to what Blue Shift has popped into the picture. Nice work.

originally posted by: Blue Shift
This latest stretch of Martian real estate is pretty boring. As I've said, I like the transitional areas between two different types of terrain, especially if they contain some kind of accumulation of mud and stones.

mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

And you know what? The bottom yellow-colored pop-up on the left looks a lot like a miniature member of the same or related species as the bigger example that Buzz found a long-long ago time ago, and that some of us thought at least tied for the best of the best examples of 1%-potential. I can't go get it now, time limitations. But yeah, this is a pretty nice find, Blue Shift.

originally posted by: funbox
reply to post by BuzzDengue

 

interesting one that, alow me to blow it up for you

*one minor explosion later*

does look like something mangled, that may have once had spoke like structures

funBox

Here's the post from funbox. I still think it's going to end up as a historic post, but I may be so far off on that as to seem an uneducated bumpkin. It looks a little like the structure in the bottom left yellow-blink of Blue Shift picture. Again, does it have a 1% chance of being something quite interesting? I think so. If you see what I'm seeing in Blue Shift's as compared to this one, that makes a pretty good combination. And then there are examples of things oeople have found on this thread, and that look very much like the other areas of rock outlined in yellow on Blue Shift's picture, making for a good eye and an active imagination at a minimum,

I did this stuff way back in 2007 lol!1 Some kind of body of a fish or whatever I found. www.abovetopsecret.com...

it is right in the middle of this picture alsmost ..a little bit down to the right.. marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

a reply to: RUFFREADY

Bump!! LOL!! I think that looks like a skull!! Don't you?? Is it a skull? I have no idea! That is our problem!! The only way we can come to any agreement..is to go to Mars. Hands on!!

When I was in the Navy, I could only make a difference (or blow crap up) if I was there!! lol!! Right??

originally posted by: RUFFREADY
a reply to: RUFFREADY

The only way we can come to any agreement ... is to go to Mars.
Hands on!!

... unless, of course, we'll get a crystal-clear MAHLI image of a fossilized ammonite shell embedded in some of those rocks.

Discovering shapes that are strongly reminiscent of logarithmic spirals on one or more of those images could be considered hard evidence, even if it's just the distorted contours (cemented within the usual layers that seem to be coating the uniform looking rocks).

I know that would mean talking about 'complex life' in the martian past, but that'd definitely be one more argument to set foot on Mars ASAP ... !

a reply to: jeep3r

how about a small clam like protrusion and an odd rock ?



lynx

phew , I might get around to reading that pdf you inlined, if I get five minuets peace

floggedBox

originally posted by: funbox
a reply to: jeep3r
how about a small clam like protrusion and an odd rock ?

phew , I might get around to reading that pdf you inlined, if I get five minuets peace

floggedBox

Good eye, but I'm not the judge you know! And according to Aleister one could say "spokes ... or it didn't happen!".


I know what you mean, though, but it always comes down to 'resolution' (although I know you don't like that word because it sounds like 'revolution') and in most cases we just don't have enough of that hi-res stuff.

Would have needed MAHLI on several occasions by now, but I guess we're bound to work with what we have *sigh*! And yes: give that inline PDF on that other thread a read, should be entertaining!

a reply to: jeep3r

ahh Jeep you know Mahli is for taking picture of the wheels and skewwhiff horizons, its becoming ridiculous,. what would be a valid target for the use of that camera , would they have to see a complete skeleton with a sign saying complete skeleton above it before they get snappy , so much for the revised mission statement,

maybe they just think that finding an actual fossil would make there initial mission objectives redundant to the point of obscurity

ah well roll on the butes

funbox

a reply to: funbox

What do you guys mean, does Rover have a real good camera that they haven't used yet? I've never heard of this, and if I have I haven't understood it. What does it do? Thanks.

I can sense symptomoftheuniverse lurking out there,....there, I see him! symptom, come back. Here, I'll pour you some wine. It's one of those rare ones, collected by Thomas Jefferson himself and aged in Paris. It's really good:

originally posted by: RUFFREADY
I did this stuff way back in 2007 lol!1 Some kind of body of a fish or whatever I found. www.abovetopsecret.com...

it is right in the middle of this picture alsmost ..a little bit down to the right.. marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

Heck it looks like a dinosaur head...

Got me thinking: 65 million years ago an asteroid strikes Earth. Vast quantities of earth and its inhabitants are incinerated. Debris is flung into space, including the remains of dinosaurs and other animal and plant life.

Hmmm, I wonder where some ended up landing...

Crazy thoughts I know.

PS. having said all that, the said skull does look rather tiny. Me not convinced.

originally posted by: Aleister
a reply to: funbox

What do you guys mean, does Rover have a real good camera that they haven't used yet? I've never heard of this, and if I have I haven't understood it. What does it do? Thanks.

MAHLI (Mars Hand Lens Imager)

marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov...

It has been used lots. See the images via this page (select "instrument" at the top)

marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov...

originally posted by: Blister

originally posted by: RUFFREADY
I did this stuff way back in 2007 lol!1 Some kind of body of a fish or whatever I found. www.abovetopsecret.com...

it is right in the middle of this picture alsmost ..a little bit down to the right.. marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

Heck it looks like a dinosaur head...

Got me thinking: 65 million years ago an asteroid strikes Earth. Vast quantities of earth and its inhabitants are incinerated. Debris is flung into space, including the remains of dinosaurs and other animal and plant life.

Hmmm, I wonder where some ended up landing...

Crazy thoughts I know.

PS. having said all that, the said skull does look rather tiny. Me not convinced.

It's a baby dinosaur !! Plus Mars is (was) smaller than earth right? Also, they say here on earth the dinosaurs got so big because there was more oxygen in the atmosphere. Maybe on Mars there was a lot less...so they didn't get as big!!

originally posted by: funbox
a reply to: jeep3r

maybe they just think that finding an actual fossil would make there initial mission objectives redundant to the point of obscurity

You think the first team to find proof of extraterrestrial life would be consigned to obscurity?

I don't think so. It would only be just about the biggest discovery in history!

a reply to: Rob48

was their initial mission objectives to find fossils?

or was it something else?

funBOx

a reply to: Aleister

I think also that its on a robotic arm , giving it more scope to get into places the other fixed camera cannot ,.. and it always seems to be a sharper picture than is produced by the other cameras, albeit this might be down to post processing from that cam..

funBox

originally posted by: funbox
a reply to: Rob48

was their initial mission objectives to find fossils?

or was it something else?

funBOx

Never hear of serendipity? You don't ignore a ground-breaking discovery because it wasn't what you set out to discover. Do you think Alexander Fleming should have thrown out his dishes that got contaminated with penicillin because discovering antibiotics wasn't in his diary for that day?

A big part of the MSL mission is investigating whether Mars had the conditions for life in the past.

a reply to: Rob48

try rereading my post .. are you sure your from the u.k?

*sniff sniff*

funBOx

originally posted by: funbox
a reply to: Rob48

try rereading my post .. are you sure your from the u.k?

*sniff sniff*

funBOx

I reread your post. Yep, I understood it OK. and yes, I just double checked, I am from the UK. Hampshire, to be more precise. It's currently a couple of minutes to 9 and it will be getting dark soon. Time for another drink. What does that have to do with anything?

Anyway, going back to your original question, these are the MSL mission objectives:

Biological objectives:

1. Determine the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds

2. Inventory the chemical building blocks of life (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur)

3. Identify features that may represent the effects of biological processes

Geological and geochemical objectives:

4. Investigate the chemical, isotopic, and mineralogical composition of the martian surface and near-surface geological materials

5. Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils

Planetary process objectives:

6. Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) atmospheric evolution processes

7. Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide

Surface radiation objective:

8. Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic cosmic radiation, solar proton events, and secondary neutrons

I would have thought that discovering a fossil would fit nicely into objective 3 above. Wouldn't you?