Posted on 02/22/2004 8:04:49 AM PST by Phil V.
Microscopic Imager Non-linearized Full frame EDR acquired on Sol 28 of Opportunity's mission to Meridiani Planum at approximately at approximately 12:26:38 Mars local solar time, Microscopic Imager dust cover commanded to be OPEN. NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS
Just below center and just to the left of center notice what appears to be a fractured "spherule". Notice the dark center. This is STRONGLY suggestive of growth by accretion - an increase by natural growth or by gradual external addition . . . a process FREQUENTLY associated with a water environment. This is MY interpretation. But the picture is NASA/JPL . . . it is worth a thousand words. Feel free to contribute.
I'm not sure if you were mocking me or not. I hope not. It's something I've thought seriously about and have tried to keep and open mind about as well.
The scenery...doesn't quite look like what one would imagine a planet surface that is millions of years old too look like : )
Maybe *Electric Universe model is closer to how Mars has been altered..that reality not so distant as time goes.
Maybe..just maybe there's someting to the Mythology track...a Warring Mars...and Athena [Venus].
At least NASA/JPL admit Mars's orbital trac has been diveregent.
so its a beginning at least.
So Carl Sagan had to conjure up..*Runaway greenhouse for Venus when confronted by the Velikovskian ident of what Venus would really be like.
Guess he would conjure up ..*runnaway dryness for Mars.
Mars appear to have a very young surface...the line of dichotomy...like 1/3 of Mars's crust got bounced off into space.
Then their is the impact sites..and the Electrical interface scars being seen..but not as yet accepted.
The difference in the climate between Syracuse and Miami is caused by the ANGLE of the sun. It's warmer in Miami because the sun is more directly overhead. At the equator it is warm because the sun is directly overhead all year. We have seasons because the earth's axis cause a tilt in the orbital plane and so the angle of the sun becomes lower in respective hemishperes at different times of the year.
I was gonna jump in on that one, but I see everyone beat me to it. The only thing I'd add is that the inverse square law being what it is, the difference in distance from the Sun between those two cities is, um, "astronomically" trivial, and would remain so unless the Earth was orbiting the Sun at a distance much closer than Mercury's orbit, in which case we'd have bigger fish to fry, so to speak.
For that matter, the difference between those two cities is less than the difference in the distance of the Earth as a whole from the Sun depending on time of year. And even that isn't any justification of his theory, because in the Northern hemisphere, we're (the Northern hemisphere) closest to the Sun in the Winter, and furthest away during Summer. In other words, Syracuse is closer to the Sun during Winter than Miami is during Summer.
So, if his theory was correct, the effect of distance is reversed, and Mars would be warmer than the Earth. And, the closer we got to the Sun, the colder it would get. We could probably test the theory by landing on the Sun, but just to play it safe (in case we're wrong about it), we should probably go there at night. :)
Here's one I found on that same page of new images. (I don't have broadband, so I can't do a whole lot of bandwidth-heavy nosing around).
rorschach_mode:ON
Looks like a crab coated with mud in the upper-right quarter of the picture. Below it are two of the pearl/mushroom/whatever sphere things.
One of them shows the "peach line" down the left side. They look like they're growing out of the rock.
At the bottom of the picture, in the center, just to the "southeast" of the lower sphere, it looks like another crab claw.
rorschach_mode:OFF
I noticed the apparent stipe in the "fungus" at the top of this thread, then saw that several others had commented on it, so I knew it wasn't my imagination. Um, let me rephrase that... :)
These things certainly are intriguing. Are they animal, vegetable, or mineral? Or some combination? (i.e., something like a pearl, which is mineral, but produced by an animal). Maybe there's a vegetable that produces mineral "output" on Mars? Maybe "life" there (yes, mega-speculation mode) is in some form other than animal or vegetable? (Yes, I know there are other forms here too, but they aren't very large, with the exception of stuff like slime mold :)
If they are evidence of life, the big question is whether they're of Martian origin, or, the offspring of something kicked up from the Yucatan impact (or something in the same league).
It's all very interesting, I must admit, and I say this as someone who is pretty seriously opposed to government sponsored space activity. I'd rather see it done by the private sector, using private dollars, or, failing that, simply dropped, and let the weary taxpayers keep their money. And before anyone yells at me about how it's only costing me a few pennies a year, I'll say that every "interest" makes the same claims (nice benefit, low cost). The thing is, those pennies add up, otherwise we wouldn't have such a massive government debt load. So, when I say that I don't want "government money" to be spent on space activity, I'm not singling it out. I don't want to see it spent on anything other than that which the founders intended, i.e. the national defense and a few other critical applications. (And I would agree with defense spending for relevant space activity, but ideally, I'd like to see the money spent in the private sector.)
I'm tempted to add ,"don't flame me", but I know better. :)
That's even more than I expect to get for my Lepista nuda and Hypsiszygus tessulatus once I get them into production!
Still, I think I'll go with my plan, rather than try to figure out how to get a culture sample from Mars. :)
Electric Universe article on Mars for the inquisitive
When I saw what you posted, I had to look up your "member since" date. I was quite surprised at what I found. Whew!
To me, the dark center looks like a hole. So maybe these are some kind of mini-geodes? But so many of them, all in the same size range?
Someone mentioned that they look reminiscent of river rocks. I disagree. I've seen plenty of river rocks (lived near several gravel pits, did a fair amount of fishing). I've seen river rocks that were tumbled to a smooth, rounded, almost polished surface, but very few were what would pass for near-perfect roundness. They were in a variety of shapes and sizes. These things, on the other hand, look like someone dumped a bag of dried peas on the ground. Some of the broken ones even look like splitpeas.
The other thing that intrigues me is that "peach line" that so many of them seem to have. Why is it there? I can't see the "river rock theory" explaining that line. For that matter, I don't know why peaches (and plums, and other pit-fruit) have 'em either.
Someone (somewhere in the thread, or was it another thread? Dang fatigue..) mentioned something about a press conference Monday, where they were going to discuss this stuff. Is that something they announced they'll be covering? I'd be real interested in what they've got to say. I gotta think they've been just as intrigued by these things as we have. I hope they don't ignore them.
LOL! Now that you mention it, it does -- especially the shape in the middle, it's an uncannily good likeness.
The "OUTCROP" thread has a picture that looks very reminiscent of section of a "fairy ring".
Check out post 219.
In times past, maybe several billion years ago, the tectonic activity on Mars (vulcanism, crustal plate movement, mantle convection, hot spots, etc.) may have been sufficient to help generate an atmosphere. It is widely thought that similar geologic activity on the primeval Earth was responsible for the development of our atmospshere. On the young Earth, chemically bound hydrogen (the most abundant element in the cosmos) dominated the atmosphere. Anerobic lifeforms, such as bacteria were able to extract oxygen from iron oxides and sulphates. Chemosynthetic communities may also have existed early on.
Eventually, free hydrogen was able to escape the Earth's gravity, and the dehydrogenation of ammonia (another early constituent of both the young Earth's and the young Martian atmosphere) would have aided the development of an oxygen-rich and water-bearing atmosphere.
Mars probably failed as a complex life-developing planet because it was just a little too small to maintain sufficient tectonic activity and to hold on to its atmosphere.
The linear voids are where linear objects (still in the 'matrix') fell out - I'm having a harder time coming up with a non-biological explanation for these things.
The sole function of the ***Electric Universe model*** is to supply a patina of ***science*** to the kreationist kult.
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