SCI/TECH: Dangling "Blueberries" Have Stems

On today's Opportunity Pancam photos (for Sol 37) you can see the spherules hanging out from the rocks. Maybe this explains why some of the spherules have "navels".



Link to original Sol 37 pics

marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...





[Edited on 4-3-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

what strange "rocks"

notice how the shadow is completely under the main rock? isn't that wierd?

good find condorcet!!

While they call them 'stems', I wouldn't take this as proof they wre once plant like. Had NASA called them "marbles" instead of "blueberries", would anyone even consider they were once plant life?

Let's see if nasa releases color images.
Also if you follow the link, could somebody tell me what those circular things on the rocks are? Is that where the rover drills? Some look like they are burnt around the outer edges of the circle.

I still think it's interesting that NASA said the area "was once habitable".....

It'd be good if one day we could retrieve one of those 'blueberries' and see if there's anything inside them other than rock.

I thought this thread was about real blueberries until I had a look...

it resembles something liquid and frozen in mid flight ...like what you would see from a close up of a drop of water when it hits a larger body of water and forms a trail like stem behind it
liquid rock maybe?
magma froze in mid flight suddenly?

I thing we need to start calling them "dingleberries."

No color images? . -_-

Originally posted by HowardRoark
I thing we need to start calling them "dingleberries."

Quit calling them 'berries' -
they are probably more closely related to mistletoe.

My colleagues prefer lichen, oh well

Which one of the sol 37 photos did your little "stemmed blueberries" come from?

This one

qt.exploratorium.edu...


Here it is on the official site:
marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

[Edited on 4-3-2004 by Condorcet]

If you study the photos on the following link you can see traces of "stems" on a few very interesting examples, including RATed crossections of embedded spheres. Also photos of spheres with "navels".

www3.telus.net...

It suggests to me that the stem is part of the sphere, not just uneroded bedrock material. The stems seem to be a different color from the bedrock, but the same color as the spheres.

Could they be exposed fossils?

[Edited on 4-3-2004 by Condorcet]

For example look at the top of this sphere crossection

They certainly do look like life but the cross section of one of the spheres looks very un-remarkable. The newly found "stems" are amazing. Wonder what NASA is going to make up to explain them away?

Originally posted by Makuahine
They certainly do look like life but the cross section of one of the spheres looks very un-remarkable. The newly found "stems" are amazing. Wonder what NASA is going to make up to explain them away?

Feeder channels -
the spherules needed some sort of feeding tube.
That's what NASA will say,
but check this out for a better commentary:
Some other comments about how NASA manages to get
this completely muddled

As well as an alternative perspective

Looks like a damn levitating space snail. Could be wrong, though.

HOWARDRAORK,

thanks for the picture, my initial reaction was "splash" as well, I was going to try and find one for molten metal since the sphere seems to be attached to a metallic substance. Could be nothing more than the result of a hot impact.....meteor maybe !

I don't know if the sphere is a "blueberry" since it's in monochrome however the shade of the sphere and what it's attached to are the same. This is not the case for the colour blueberries which are far darker than the surrounding stone but probably the same shade as the darker earth.

I think we have frozen/solidified spheres like the one shown above and blueberries. Two different objects.