Weird skull like thing near Opportunity

Weird skull like thing near Opportunity

The object looks like it even haves teeth



The skull below is a fossile of a goat 20 million years old from china

www.fossilshk.com...

This area where the Opportunity has landed is called Meridiani Planum and is rich with the mineral hematite, this mineral normaly is only in places with water,

whole pic:
photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...

I got it from a dutch news page
frontpage.fok.nl...

later


[Edited on 3-2-2004 by Wintermorg]

[Edited on 3-2-2004 by Wintermorg]

maybe its an old crusty cheeto one of the aliens didnt finish

what a fascinating object to be lying around on the martian soil. and to think I didn't even notice that one. good find

btw, could it be alive? instead of being a fossil, its a martian snail of some sort????

regardless what people may say about all these anamolies, it still amazes me the little things that we find in these pics.

Yes indeed, of all the photos I have seen to date this one truly is intriguing. Even an old man such as I with poor eyesight can discern that this object is definately NOT a rock. Hmmmmm

this object is very interesting. im just waiting for the explanation. I cant wait for the day NASA decides to really let the rovers explore. I understand babying them at first, but im so impatient!

Might the technicians at NASA be feverishly attempting to drum up an explanation for this thing? Hmmmm, maybe a piece of foil and some duct tape fell off during entry, er uh, let's call it the wishbone, er uh, maybe an evil internet hoax, yeah, somebody has been playing with photoshop.

Dang if the thing don't look like bone???

Originally posted by smokenmirrors
Might the technicians at NASA be feverishly attempting to drum up an explanation for this thing?

Probably in secret if it is an alien fossil but they wouldn't dream of announcing it to the public. You think?

its a jackalope skull!!! so they're the martians. thats why we barely see them here on earth

IF it were an alien fossil why wouldn't NASA say something? some of you people are so sure that NASA lies about every thing that they sure as hell wouldn't admit to life on Mars. Lots of people think NASA photoshops things out of there images, if this thing were some sort of fossil why wouldn't they have done the same and just edited out? Maybe cause it could be nothing important.

IF it were a skull or some kind of fossil it would be really small, like much smaller than a mouse i'm pretty sure. And best not to jump to conclusions and believe you know what it is. What if it really is a rock of some sort or just a piece that fell off the lander? It's good to keep your mind open about things and all that, but best to wait and see if we get more shots of it or see what NASA says, insted of jumping to all sots of wild conclusions right away.

I have a question for you guys/gals, what is the field of view of the pic in question? From what I can determine things in these photos can be distorted, if you compare the skull like object to the landers foot prints, possibly the object is not very big. Just how big do you think it is? I mean, and inch across? a foot?

Originally posted by smokenmirrors
I have a question for you guys/gals, what is the field of view of the pic in question? From what I can determine things in these photos can be distorted, if you compare the skull like object to the landers foot prints, possibly the object is not very big. Just how big do you think it is? I mean, and inch across? a foot?

I'd say less than an inch

Nice find Wintermorg! Any chance you (or anyone here) can provide a link to the original photo?

I found the pic, but even the highest resolution version on JPL's website is only 2072 x 256 pixels, and there's no way that's sufficient resolution to see this anomaly.

There are a couple people I plan to ask about this, but they'll crucify me if it turns out to be a cute Photoshop exercise.

It's an earwig from The Wrath of Khan.

Originally posted by HowardRoark
I'd say less than an inch

Less than an inch? Did you view the whole picture? It looks larger than an inch.

If it is less than an inch, it could very well be a Martian molar (tooth).

Originally posted by Bangin

Originally posted by HowardRoark
I'd say less than an inch

Less than an inch? Did you view the whole picture? It looks larger than an inch.

If it is less than an inch, it could very well be a Martian molar (tooth).

I believe that the crater that the rover is in is only about 66 feet across, the bedrock formations are only about 20 feet from the rover when it took that picture.

Great post, well spotted!



I posted this on another forum, by coincidence I cut out 3 pieces of the picture earlier today and was inspired by this post to make this collagefrom them.

What gets me about the object on the right is that it is sitting on top of the lander air-bag tracks. It does not look like it's been dragged through the dirt as it should have been if it was there first and then the air-bags landed on it and were then dragged. Does this mean it's a piece of the lander which has come loose? Perhaps this is some of that wire cut from the rear. Who knows, it's too close to the lander to roll up to, so I hope they get a good hirez pic of it at some point.



[Edited on 3-2-2004 by Zzub]

Whoops - found it through another thread on this topic

www.abovetopsecret.com...

too cool

Wow, nice find, those were just random enlargements?

"The layered rocks are in a bedrock outcrop about 30 to 45 centimeters (12 to 18 inches) tall, and only about eight meters (26 feet) away from where Opportunity came to rest after bouncing to a landing "

so how far away is it? I'd guess 10' to 15'

How big is it?


my guess is 1 inch or less.

@DM: No, I've been staring at the picture for the last few hours. There are a few more interesting things, but they are rocks, not whatever these objects are, rocks or otherwise.

I hope they get some close-ups or these.


[Edited on 3-2-2004 by Zzub]