Rover OPPORTUNITY microscopic image . . . Martian soil . . . feel free to speculate

NASA - JPL ^ | 02-03-2004 | NASA/JPL

[Phil V.]

Microscopic Imager Non-linearized Full frame EDR aquired on Sol 10 of Opportunity's mission to Meridiani Planum at approximately 11:26:27 Mars local solar time, Microscopic Imager dust cover commanded to be OPEN. NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS

What's with the roundish grains?

1) Pyroclastic/volcanic origin

2) fungus colony

3) beach sand

4) Aldrin's golf ball

5) corrupt data

view larger image

[djf]

No trilobites?

[John H K]

Well, with a thinner atmosphere Martian tektites would be rougher and less streamlined than ours.

And it does seem tektites often have vesicles....

[Chewbacca]

Somebody spilled my Lucky Charms!

[StriperSniper]

Looks like things I see on the beach.

Yup, those three lobed ones just right of center in line at the center and bottom look like fish vertebra. (Micro Martian Fish! ;-)

[tet68]

Martian shrooms! I knew it! I knew it!
I remember doing some remote viewing and seeing them growing in the fecund soil of a vermillion crater, I passed it off to doing too much too fast, but here they are!

Psylocybe Mariani, wait till the guys down at High Times hear about this.

Listen, QUIET!, there on the martian wind you can just hear it.........."one will make you LARGER and one WILL make you small."

Listen! Listen!

"And the ones that NASA gives you won't do anything at all....."

[Darksheare]

Had a thread of a thought but lost it.
Something about 'there has to be a way to test the sphereules specifically to see if they are melt spatter or organically produced' or some such..

[Darksheare]

Martian Sardines!

[pickemuphere]

If we were to loose the Rovers now, it would be a very series blow to the space program.

[Redcloak]

Micrometeorites?

[Young Werther]

MARTIAN DIATOMS!

[Young Werther]

MARTIAN DIATOMS!

[Freedom4US]

I think it was Al Shepard who brought a golf ball and club head with him on one of the lunar missions, not Buzz Aldrin.

[John H K]

Well, what we were talking about are "tektites" which are the RESULT of meteorite impacts; from a large impact you'll get melted rock from the surface thrown to high altitudes and long distances, where it hardens into glass, and then comes back down.

Earth tektites are often smooth and streamlined, even teardrop-shaped. On Mars, theoretically, they'd be less smooth because there's less atmosphere.

And our tektites often have little "holes" or "pits" called vesicles in them.

[blam]

"And the ones that NASA gives you won't do anything at all....."

Call Alice, I think she'll know.

[Servant of the 9]

With the little dimple in it it sure looks biological to me, bacterial or a spore.

So9

[Focault's Pendulum]

I think that upper right hand object is winking at us...we're doomed.

[Phil V.]

I think it was Al Shepard who brought a golf ball and club head with him on one of the lunar missions, not Buzz Aldrin.

You're probably right about Al. But I'm sticking to the theory that Al was the first human to land something on Mars.

[corkoman]

It would be nice for someone at JPL/Nasa to place a measurement bar on that image - that could be a beach ball for all we can tell.

[GeronL]

seeds.... see book/movie Relic

[Starve The Beast]

We need to be careful here. I can see the diatoms in this picture too, but remember... I think it was Carl Sagan who said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof". We mustn't believe until the evidence is overwhelming. It isn't that I don't want to believe that life springs up anywhere the conditions are right... it's that I want to believe so badly.

It's the stuff you want to believe the most that requires the most skepticism.