Curiosity: Potential Anomalies (Update 01/2014)

a reply to: vancliff

Hi. To post threads you need to have 20 posts - that is, you have to add your comments in 20 separate postings. You've got some already, so just look around and see what topic interests you enough to comment on. As for your finds, there are interesting shapes on Mars, that's for sure.

originally posted by: Char-Lee
a reply to: Aleister
And for you a big HUG

Making me blush. Thanks, but yes, you do have an eye for details that nobody else sees until you point things out. I guess with the Rover coming up on the Buttes and then the cross-over to Mount Sharpe there will be more "things" for all of us to toss up and see where they land.

originally posted by: jeep3r
a reply to: this thread

Over in the highly-speculative forum, Arken stumbled upon this rather interesting feature:

Source Image

Whatever it is, the original thread can be found here and I thought this is certainly interesting for everyone on the anomalies thread as well ...

That shot is mighty amazing.

Random SOL pick. Valve:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

a reply to: Char-Lee

Wow! Assuredly the biggest reconnaissance I received yet! Thanks!

a reply to: this thread

Looks like an 'almost' perfect sphere, from sol 746:

Source Image

Geologically not unheard of, but interesting nonetheless IMO ...

originally posted by: jeep3r
a reply to: this thread

Looks like an 'almost' perfect sphere, from sol 746:

Source Image

Geologically not unheard of, but interesting nonetheless IMO ...

It looks a bit odd all by itself on the original photo.
Another nice find !

originally posted by: lambros56
It looks a bit odd all by itself on the original photo.
Another nice find !

I agree, they are not uncommon but what is uncommon is seeing only one.

a reply to: ArMaP

there's never only one



soon we'll have enough for an omelette

funbox

Another one of those barnacle things. How many do I have to find before I can say they're "common?"
mars.jpl.nasa.gov...


Interesting impression that overlaps the rocks:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

a reply to: Blue Shift

From the link of your last picture, right top corner, I saw the following;

in a) there was this thing that looked like a bird, it's a spherical, and seemingly flat object imbedded in a rock.
in b) there is a nice geological feature of a natural bridge. Good enough for Smurfs!

and in c), there is this straight line of what is it now? I've seen many straight things point out of the surface of Mars, but was told it was natural, but also never told how.

This one is the longest I've seen by far.

originally posted by: NowanKenubi
there is this straight line of what is it now? I've seen many straight things point out of the surface of Mars, but was told it was natural, but also never told how.
This one is the longest I've seen by far.

Yeah, I noticed it. It looks like of like a pencil or a nail. I just figured it was the last little bit of a line of calcium in a crack that didn't wear away, or maybe a piece of a stratified layer. This area is full of stratified material that has been slowly worn away or sculpted by the gritty wind.

a reply to: Blue Shift

That's an impressive wind work then! Do you know if there are similar things on Earth and of similar size?

I agree it looks like a pen or a nail.
So you say something, like a venting gas, maybe, could create a hole, circular and straight, and then get filled by another, and more harder, material than it's surroundings that end up getting blown away by erosion...
Somehow, in my mind's eye, I had the impression it would only result in "sheets" of materials... lol I hadn't thought about an event that would create a pencil like object, naturally.

Thanks!

odd looking lattice,



sol 753 mast

kinda similar to the root looking protrusions from earlier

funbox

originally posted by: NowanKenubi
That's an impressive wind work then!

It's been blowing pretty steadily for a billion years or so, ever since the atmosphere leaked away. Except for interruptions by the occasional meteorite bombardment, it's just been slowly, slowly grinding away at the rock. Some faster than others. Once in a while there's a big dust storm that covers the entire planet, and that speeds things up a little. But mostly it's just grinding away.

Random SOL pick. Another one of these things:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov...


Rock face:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

a reply to: Blue Shift

What often makes your finds very interesting is the color difference between the objects and the rock face that they are embedded within. Your first one on your recent post has a definite shape and structure as well as the color difference. Posting all you and others find adds 'to the literature' being accumulated on this thread and elsewhere. I've found that this thread tends to focus (when we're not playing) on objects which may not be the most tabloid-worthy (GIANT RABBITS FOUND ON NEPTUNE) but are much more likely to actually be the possible fossilized remains of marine-biological life forms.

originally posted by: Aleister
I've found that this thread tends to focus (when we're not playing) on objects which may not be the most tabloid-worthy (GIANT RABBITS FOUND ON NEPTUNE) but are much more likely to actually be the possible fossilized remains of marine-biological life forms.

Yeah, I'm not really that interested in things that look like artifacts -- statues or space ship parts, or whatever. I tend to focus on simple shapes that could realistically be the fossilized remains of something, given the ancient Mars environment and what might have possibly had time to evolve in it -- shells and sponges, probably not anything complex as a fish. So a lot of the stuff I end up pointing out doesn't have that "gee whiz" factor. They're just round things that stand out, or spirals, or things that look like they might have grown in some way at some point. There is actually a surprising number of them, once you start to look. And they've been showing up on the images almost since SOL 1.

a reply to: Blue Shift

isn't concentrating on one family of a food chain in your search of mars a little contradictory to what lays in/on mars potentially ? surely affirming one set of notions you have about the potential life within the old lakes would lead to further thoughts about evolution and the potential for other animals to be present within the environment , martian dogs eating martian cats and all that. still

if cataclysms cut short things , hats off to the molluscs for making it to the top of the tree , im sure earth variety's would be proud that some distant cousins of theirs were the top molluscs in the dog pound.

if there was time for molluscs enough to evolve , the chances for other complex lifeforms are considerably increased in my eyes

funbox

originally posted by: funbox
if there was time for molluscs enough to evolve , the chances for other complex lifeforms are considerably increased in my eyes

I suppose there's a chance. There are all kinds of fairly complex organisms in our oceans. Unfortunately, it might be difficult for there to be a remnant of something like a jellyfish or octopus or squid to survive as a fossil on Mars. The nearest thing to that I've seen was this thing I found last week:


And I haven't seen any real good potential vertebrate structures. I've been keeping my eyes open for them, but nothing so far, or at least nothing I can differentiate from what could be a remnant of a stratification layer. There have been a few things that look fractal, like a growing plant of some kind. But nothing more complex than that.

Maybe there was time for a huge variety of creatures to evolve. I don't know. Things generally evolve rapidly as a result of stress on a species caused by fluctuations. I'm not sure if Mars had during the period it had liquid water the kind of climatic fluctuations that would have encouraged rapid and widespread animal diversity.

Of course, it's a different planet with a significantly different planetary environment. For example, even when it had liquid water on the surface, it didn't have tides. No tide pools. That would have made a huge difference in the way a Mars ocean creature might have evolved.

But you never know. Maybe next week I'll spot something that just couldn't be accounted for by anything but a complex creature.

That object looks like an iron
a reply to: symptomoftheuniverse