Mystery Spheres on Mars Finally Identified

Space.com ^ | 17 March 2004 | Leonard David

[ElkGroveDan]

Now we need to find the giant hematite lizard that laid all these eggs.

[ElkGroveDan]

ping

[N. Theknow]

Mystery Spheres on Mars Finally Identified

Mars has boobs?

[dogbyte12]

I always thought the mystery spheres would turn out to be Kerry's cojones. They haven't been spotted anywhere on earth.

[Robert_Paulson2]

so then, WHERE is the water.
If it was liquid, where are the theories about WHERE it has gone or WHY it has changed?

liquid water needs 32 degrees to thaw.
when was the last time Mars saw 32 degrees?

If it was two billion years ago, or two weeks agon makes a difference. We have suspected WHAT was on mars, for a long time. WHERE it is, went or how it left matters a lot. What we can do to recover and use it, matters a lot.

very frustrating...
we KNOW mars had water... is it on the north or south poles or what?

[Viking2002]

I was just thinking that Martian life must have a hematite-rich diet. From the looks of it, Martian bunnies, perhaps?

[freedumb2003]

received close examination and have now been identified as hematite.

Now that they have been discovered, the hematites filed suit in California to become married, saying that "genetalia doesn't matter as long as we are in Love."

[Diogenesis]

========= Meridiani Planum =========

At Meridiani Planum, Mars.

[dr_who_2]

Should have guessed.

[spokeshave]

Well.that's a relief.......I thought that they were dingleberries

[ChuckShick]

It sounds like the Horta to me. Where's Spock when you need him.

[Phil V.]

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If you'd like to be on or off this MARS ping list please FRail me.

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Will hematite display a hexagonal crystaline structure as it builds the berries or do organisms oganize the hematite into hexagonal arrangements?

Below this picture from sol-028 is a 3-D of the shperule hear the center . . .

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[lonevoice]

Paging Richard C Hoaxland. Now that they've identified the blueberries, maybe they can get started on the pistons and fossils.

[Phil V.]

. . . note to self . . . TAKE A TYPING CLASS!

[FreedomFarmer]

No dingleberries in space...

Klingons.

[amom]

Excellent! This just keeps getting better.

Thanks for the ping.

[Rebel_Ace]

"...liquid water needs 32 degrees to thaw. when was the last time Mars saw 32 degrees?..."

Actually, in very low pressure environments, solid ice "evaporates" directly into the air without going through the "liquid" phase. When this is happening, the term (or verb) for it is "sublime", as in the ice sublimed into vapor. Since the air pressure on Mars is so very low, I would expect a chunk of ice anywhere away from the extremely cold poles to slowly disappear on it's own.

Once the water vapor was in the air, hard radiation could split the Hydrogen and Oxygen, where the lighter Hydrogen could "leak away" into space, and the heavier oxygen could bind with material on the surface to form a crusty-rust.

[gcruse]

Now we need to find the giant hematite lizard that laid all these eggs.

That would be the SHEmatite.

[Starve The Beast]

Well, shoot, there goes my caviar theory.

[Kirkwood]

"Once the water vapor was in the air, hard radiation could split the Hydrogen and Oxygen, where the lighter Hydrogen could "leak away" into space, and the heavier oxygen could bind with material on the surface to form a crusty-rust."

This is exactly what I was taught as an astronomy undergraduate 30 years ago. I don't think the theory has changed during that time.