Unusual Looking Martian Rock

NONE | 1-9-04 | Orion78

[Orion78]

The original image from NASA is HERE

Location of Rock in Question

Close Up

[LPM1888]

Excellent! It would be torture to find a hole and then not be able to look in it.

[Redcloak]

Clown shoes on Mars.

[Orion78]

The mission's scientists, who are getting little rest as they examine the pictures from Spirit, chose the name "Sleepy Hollow" for one of these circular depressions. This one is about 9 meters (30 feet) across and about 12 meters (40 feet) north of the lander, Squyres said.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2004/5.cfm

[GummyIII]

bump to read later....

[Orion78]

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft_instru_mi.html

The Microscopic Imager is located on the arm of the rover, so they will most definately would be able to take a close up picture of any hole they might find.

[Orion78]

Sheesh, I haven't seen a Viking image in a long time. Look at the size of those boulders! Try driving a rover through that.

[Joe Hadenuf]

40 feet isn't very far. I still feel they are too close for bounce marks....

[stands2reason]

Looks like a... bunch of rocks. One of them (upper left) looked like a turtle, though.

[Orion78]

Rebounding like some alien beach ball, the spacecraft will bounce as high as 20 meters (66 feet) on its first bounce, taking several minutes to come to rest somewhere in a landing "footprint" measuring 110 kilometers by 15 kilometers (68 miles by nine miles).

According to this article, the highest bounce is about 66 feet, which is only twice as high as "sleepy hollow" is wide (30 feet). Also, as posted earlier, "sleepy hollow" is about 40 feet from the lander.

If you look at the marks inside "sleepy hollow", you see one is near the edge and one is roughly near the middle, which would put the marks about 15 feet apart. If that is the case, I don't think it shouldn't have been bouncing very high at that point.

I am no expert, but it doesn't seem that unreasonable for the spacecraft to bounce like that then roll to a stop 40 feet away. I don't know. What do you think? Anyone else out there have any input?

[Orion78]

Here is a picture of the airbags that gives a good sense of their size.

[Las Vegas Dave]

then roll to a stop 40 feet away

My thoughts too!

[Joe Hadenuf]

If it was still bouncing just 40 feet away from point of rest, Well, considering the surface gravity, which is much less than earths, it seems the crafts point of rest should be further away from sleepy hollow.

I hope we find out what they are.

[Lazamataz]

Looks like a... bunch of rocks. One of them (upper left) looked like a turtle, though.

Martian life!!!!

[A CA Guy]

Not a big deal. The rock could have been hit by a spec sized meteor or got picked up by the heavy Martian winds and thrown on another sharp rock to form the hole.

I could go on with other logical ways to have that happen.

[Orion78]

From everything I hear, the buzz is that "sleepy hollow" will probably be one of the first targets for Spirit. I can't wait. If you run across anything released from NASA regarding the marks, be sure to ping me.

I have to get to bed though, so I'll have to continue this discussion tommorow. Thanks for the conversation.

Orion78

[Orlando]

There are no rocks in that area, NASA needs to be careful
about quicksand. We don't need the rover getting caught in
a bed of mud/ water covered in sand. just my .02 cents

[piasa]

There would be a bright light part on the protrusion which would make this more obvious if it wasn't for the fact that that part of the rock is in the shadow of the other, larger one behind and to the left of it. As it is, if you look just a bit to the left of the "hole" you will see that there is indeed a lighter area defining the roughly vertical side/edge of the bulge/protrusion; this area would be much more sharply defined if it received direct light.

The shadowed frontside of the protrusion appears extra-dark relative to the shadowed areas of the larger rock for the same reason- it is not only shaded because it is on the dark side of the protrusion in its own rock, it is also shaded by the larger rock to the left rear, which allows no backlighting at all. That's partly why it looks pitlike. The other reason is the plane of the shadowed side of the protrusion which is nearest to us is angled so as to receive even less light- you can see similar darkness in the shading in the rock to the immediate right of the "holed" rock.

[barker]

.... and ping anyone who is interested.

Ping me please.

[New Horizon]

I actually counted the "nuhs" in your tagline to check for accuracy.
You were right on.
I require coffee and a life...now.

[uglybiker]

16 nuhs. (eight couplets) Yep. I'm amazed.

It's a talent, I know.

Them extra toes comes in handy, too. :-P