I spy, with my PanCam eye...

... some rather unusual looking things.

Please spend a few minutes looking at this frame from the Spirit lander on Sol 29.

It's a full-detail L4 frame. The longer I look at it, the more strange things I see.

I wanted to see if others were noticing some of the strangeness, too, before I started speculating too much.

Your thoughts?

looks like some rocks or something that you'd see on a beach...

All I see are remnants from asteroids. If you look hard enough, your imagination comes into play.

I just see rock. Would like to know what you think you can see.

I looked for a couple of minutes and noticed strange markings on the ground. They almost look like noodles. In The Lost Boys they trick Michael into thinking he was eating worms when he was actually eating noodles. Whoa, what an imagination?! Seriously, I notice those markings and a couple of interesting rocks.

There are a couple martian crab/rabbit - like objects.

I notice one thing right away. How neat that scene is. The size of the rocks and the even distribution of them.

and the pyramid

well, 2d, so triangle, I suppose.

with my artistic eye, I see lots of things, faces, skulls a birdhouse, etc, etc but that's just me.

however there are at least 2 objects that look "artificial" looks like a circular object attached with to a pipe that has 2 or 3 pieces sticking out at angles.

or possibly that "crab" thingy, it has protruding appendages that cast a shadow on the ground.

One of these things towards the right actually looks like (claws, fingers)clasps (think girl's hair clip)etc, when you squeeze it open.

and that freaky rock face in the lower left. that really looks like a face to me.

just my observations.

My first impression on opening the image was "wow, that looks like a scene of a sea bed, or a beach".

But I wasn't sure what gave my subconscious that impression.

So I started looking for specific things that made me think "sea bed".

Here are some croppings that I made from the image:




This one immediately struck me as odd... the very straight and angular sides.



This was one that screamed "sea life" to me... it looked instantly like a fossilized crustacean. I see a spiral shell in the center, with a large claw structure coming down towards the bottom, with legs (etc) flaring off to the left.




This one brings long, straight tubes offset at sharp angles... it reminds me of some coral / sea life images that I've seen.




More sharp lines laid out in a fan pattern, reminiscent of scalloped shells.




This looks like a classic bivalve shape (clamshell) with opposite sides meeting in a fluted shape.




This looks a lot like a great many coral structures that I've seen.


The whole thing is set in what looks like a fine sediment complete with flow marks, which is again reminiscent of a sea bed.

All in all, I find the whole thing remarkably intriguing. I realize that the mind can play tricks when given this much input, but several of those shapes look quite unusual... particularly the third image with the long, thin tubes offset at angles.


[Edited on 2-14-2004 by BarryKearns]

there's lots of interesting rocks there. be nice to see that pic in real, honest true color.
the pentagonal nut with the hole in the middle and the gear-like rock are the more unnatural looking things to me.
looks like remains of an ancient machine scattered amongst fossils.

Originally posted by billybob
there's lots of interesting rocks there. be nice to see that pic in real, honest true color.
the pentagonal nut with the hole in the middle and the gear-like rock are the more unnatural looking things to me.
looks like remains of an ancient machine scattered amongst fossils.

Unfortunately, it looks like the only available frames from that shot are L4 and L7, so I don't think we have a chance of seeing it in close to true color.

OK I've had another look, it's still rock but it's what that rock is made of.

Looking closer it could be fossilised coral reef.

Look at the rock centre/top and the one in the top left corner (the one with the hole) That could have been a hole for a worm.



So I agree with BarryKearns, this could well be a sea bed.

[Edited on 14-2-2004 by Britman]

The planet has no atmosphere (you can find that info in any astronomy book) So, the meteroites and space dust hit the planet and rocks. Thats one cause for a lot of holes.

Now, some of the holes look kind of odd. I studied Marine biology, and it looks to me that there are similar patterns on some of the rocks that you would find that barnicles make of rocks here on earth. They make their home on the rocks, and after many generations, there are holes worn into the rocks.
Also, if the rocks are soft enough, something as simple as sand moving in the tide can make holes in weak spots of the rock. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doens't Mars have sand storms? Who knows how long the planet or the rocks have been sitting there, but the many different shapes are probably just from sand erosion.
I don't think there is sea life in that pic. Take a look at a textured wall sometime. You can see all kinds of sea life, martians, monster, even elvis......

We're not suggesting there is life, mearly the possablity that there could have been a few million years ago.
Then again you are right too, sand storm could I guess cause the hole and strange shapes of the rock.


On a personal note, I firmly believe Mars was once a living breathing planet but for some reason it died and those that lived there cam here.

grankor, re-check those astronomy books. Mars does have an atmosphere, thats how the dust storms occur

As far as finding images in shapes you are right. But it doesn't hurt to keep an eye out and speculate.

[Edited on 14-2-2004 by Kano]

I see some interesting shapes and patterns. It would be interesting to look at them closer.

However, keeping in mind that Mars is another planet with an environment, climate and geology that are significantly different from ours, I think it is wrong to apply terestrial models to acount for the shapes and patterns.

Lightning strikes cause fulgurite, which is a glassy rock formed when the heat from lightning fuses sand together.

mars.astrobio.net... .

Originally posted by baked
Lightning strikes cause fulgurite, which is a glassy rock formed when the heat from lightning fuses sand together.

mars.astrobio.net... .

Yes, but that begs the question: "Is there lighning on Mars?"

Originally posted by HowardRoark

Originally posted by baked
Lightning strikes cause fulgurite, which is a glassy rock formed when the heat from lightning fuses sand together.

mars.astrobio.net... .

Yes, but that begs the question: "Is there lighning on Mars?"

Even though the Martian atmosphere is only about 1% as dense as the Earth's, Martian dust storms are thought to put enough statically charged particles into the air to cause Martian lightning

rense.com...

Now I am not saying this explains what we see in the picture.
To me is looks like fossilised ocean life or something similar.