Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 October 5 
Posted on 10/05/2016 6:02:30 AM PDT by ThomasMore
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 October 5
Explanation: What is this unusual mound on Mars? NASA's Curiosity rover rolling across Mars has come across a group of these mounds that NASA has labelled Murray Buttes. Pictured is a recently assembled mosaic image of one of the last of the buttes passed by Curiosity on its way up Mt. Sharp -- but also one of the most visually spectacular. Ancient water-deposited layers in relatively dense -- but now dried-out and crumbling -- windblown sandstone tops the 15-meter tall structure. The rim of Gale crater is visible in the distance. Curiosity continues to accumulate clues about how Mars changed from a planet with areas wet and hospitable to microbial life to the dry, barren, rusted landscape seen today.
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
I've seen exfoliating granite up in the high country above Yosemite that looks sedimentary as well. I wonder if this is volcanic based?
We probably will not know until we get there.
It might be some mechanism that we are unaware of.
It looks like private space flight companies are our best hope.
No, sorry, I don't think that is a realistic possibility.
Granite is an *intrusive* igneous rock. Meaning it crystallized underground very slowly such that visible crystals had time to develop. ie, it does not flow unto the surface in layers. However, within its magma chamber it can flow or even settle into discrete layers, via heavier crystals sinking. But I don't think neither would at all resemble that stack on Mars.
The exfoliation of granite (curved sheets of granite peeling off like layers of an onion) occurs due to the expansion of the granite as a result of it still "rebounding" from the weight of the once overlying glaciers, and/or weight of the once overlying rock mass (aka, isostatic rebound).
How many unrealistic probabilities have come to be discovered to be probable. I remember reading the Lorentz’ contraction was a joke. Until Einstein.
30-40% of land mass being covered by miles-thick glaciers which rapidly (geologically speaking) melted is a more likely explanation.
Although his (Lorentz) equations worked, and Einstein used them in his Relativity theories, or came up with them on his own (I doubt it), his (Lorentz) reasoning behind it was that the electron, which had then been a newly discovered particle, did the contracting, as opposed to length (actually space). ie, the electron shrunk.
Or could it be these events occurred concurrently?
“NASA has labelled Murray Butte”
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Dunno that I’d want a butte named after me, just the word itself cracks me up.
No, you pretty much got it right. It’s a kind of an “Ankle bone connected to the leg bone’’ kind of thing. You need a planetary mass to be rotating with a molten liquid iron core. This molten mass creates a magnetic field which holds the atmosphere in place. Once the planets rotation slows or stops then the molten core begins to cool and your magnetic field begins to weaken and your atmosphere begins to dissipate. Once the core has cooled completely and has solidified then you have no atmosphere left. The length of time this takes depended on the size of the planet. It can a few hundred thousand years , millions or even a billions.
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