Mystery Spheres on Mars

NASA's long-lived rover Opportunity has returned an image of the Martian surface that is puzzling researchers.

Spherical objects concentrated at an outcrop Opportunity reached last week differ in several ways from iron-rich spherules nicknamed "blueberries" the rover found at its landing site in early 2004 and at many other locations to date.

Opportunity is investigating an outcrop called Kirkwood in the Cape York segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The spheres measure as much as one-eighth of an inch (3 millimeters) in diameter. The analysis is still preliminary, but it indicates that these spheres do not have the high iron content of Martian blueberries.

"This is one of the most extraordinary pictures from the whole mission," said Opportunity's principal investigator, Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "Kirkwood is chock full of a dense accumulation of these small spherical objects. Of course, we immediately thought of the blueberries, but this is something different. We never have seen such a dense accumulation of spherules in a rock outcrop on Mars."

Opportunity Science team says that these spherules at Kirkwood do not have the iron-rich composition of the blueberries. They also differ in concentration, distribution and structure. Some of the spherules in this image have been partially eroded away, revealing concentric internal structure. They plan to use the rover for further investigation of these spherules to determine what evidence they can provide about ancient Martian environmental conditions.

Source: Science NASA

I wish they had a color picture of these spheres..Maybe formed by high intense heat causing the material they're made from to boil or something than cool into these shapes..Hell i don't know just speculation..I had a power line in my backyard snap in a thunderstorm one time..every time the live wire hit the ground it would liquify the minerals in the ground and they would bubble up and harden into sphere like shapes

I think they could be bubbles. There are crater-like pocks amid the spheres that resemble popped bubbles. Maybe it is igneous rock.

reply to post by TheLonewolf


I agree. It looks like rock or metal that has boiled. I note that the spheres are at most 1/8 in across.

reply to post by ecapsretuo


Pretty neat whatever they are..You aware of anything that looks like this on earth?..I did a quick search and didn't find anything that looked quite like it

reply to post by elevenaugust


I agree, looks like bubbles and some of them have popped. Or just a lumpy rock.

reply to post by ecapsretuo


I just noticed those popped ones..very interesting

looks like they took a picture at my attempt to weld something,im crap at it,lol.

OH GOD NO, THEY FOUND THE EGGS....NOT THE EGGS NO! SOME OF THEM HAVE HATCHED!

It is only a matter of time now.

30 days to burrow and grow

30 days to absorb enough radiation from the Sun for flight

30 days to reach Earth

10 days to devour us all

The Mayans knew containing them on Mars would not be enough.... but how did they know the date?

Originally posted by penninja
OH GOD NO, THEY FOUND THE EGGS....NOT THE EGGS NO! SOME OF THEM HAVE HATCHED!

It is only a matter of time now.

30 days to burrow and grow

30 days to absorb enough radiation from the Sun for flight

30 days to reach Earth

10 days to devour us all

The Mayans knew containing them on Mars would not be enough.... but how did they know the date?

Holy Moly! They DO kind of look like eggs. omg
2nd

reply to post by elevenaugust


Well to my untrained eye they do look like fossilized mud bubbles from a thermal hot spring , perfect breeding ground for life I believe
Here's a similar picture from here on Earth .

reply to post by penninja


Possibly the greatest 2012 theory I've ever heard.. I'm gonna hold you to this one..It's too ingenious not to

reply to post by gortex


All joking aside

I have a strong feeling this is the mission that discovers life

reply to post by gortex


Thank you for that picture..I've been lookin' for similar pictures to the OP's from here on earth and couldn't find any

reply to post by penninja


but will they tell us if they do? I really hope the a-holes didn't find it back in the 70's and just hoard the info until now

Originally posted by TheLonewolf
reply to post by penninja

 

Possibly the greatest 2012 theory I've ever heard..

I'm gonna hold you to this one..It's too ingenious not to

LOL

I have always felt that if mankind gets extinguished it wouldn't be any of this drama we read every day, not WW3, no planet X, no airborne aids...

Something utterly ridiculous and unexpected...

Like the cluster of eggs deposited on Mars by a passing Moon Sized Space Salmon hatched by a warm Lazer from a simple probe.

Fossilized: seeds/seed pods/insect larvae/frog spawn/fish eggs/cinder toffee?

Gimme a break, this is ATS

reply to post by penninja


I think your exactly right about that..It will be some totally unexpected, outrageous thing that wipes us out..I've always had the feeling it would be some microbe brewing in the bowels of a comet and as it approaches the sun and starts to break up a piece of that microbe infested comet would crash to earth and just reek total havoc on us

reply to post by gortex


If you look carefully at the photo you will see that some are more than half a sphere, so they are not likely to be bubbles. Also, their size (3 mm) is too small for mud bubbles (I think).

From the article they seem to think the popped looking spheres were eroded after fossilization. I see tails on the "tops" of the spheres it looks sortnof like they flowed downwards after they broke the surface of the formation or it's like they seem more a part of the surrounding rock than the blueberries did. It's fascinating