Semi Straight lines found on Mars. Natural or Unnatural?

Semi Straight lines found on Mars. Natural or Unnatural?

Recently I was exploring mars and I came upon a dotted straight line going diagonal downhill. I want to call it a boulder trail, but this trail is going diagonal and not straight down like physics should suggest. Following the line all the way down the hill it stops at an object that I can not identify.

I would like some opinions on what exactly this .2 mile long line is on mars.
Open Google Earth. Click on view, then explore then mars.

Here are the coordinates . 5° 9'55.40"N 48°11'4.37"W (just paste in search box.)

I was also able to get 3 screen shots as follows.

(Note the yellow line on the screen shots are a mesuring line inserted by me for reference.)

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f3a2d475ff4c.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/55d2a83f3d17.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ac1f5670819b.jpg[/atsimg]

Could that not be the trail of a stone rolling down a hill?

Or possibly a martian unicycle track?

S & F

Very interesting.

It could be a really big 'something' going for his/her/it's annual 2 mile long walk.

Im probably gonna just sit back and let the experienced members of this site sort this one out.

Go find Man, nice work.

It does look like the tracks you'd see from someone walking across a desert.

Doesn't look like rover tracks.

Also, didn't the rovers land in big beachball airbags that rolled for quite a distance before the "petals" opened and activated the rover?

Well from the height that the image is taken the object must have been huge!
Curiously though, the line actually curves as it reaches the crater - therefore going around it. Seems a bit weird.

It's a pebble being blown along the soft ground, Mars does have an atmosphere eh..

reply to post by Nventual

the line actually curves as it reaches the crater - therefore going around it. Seems a bit weird.

Good observation I did not notice it at first, but it does avoid the crater.

And another thing is on the 3rd picture down I can almost see shadows being cast by the dots.

Mutant Giant Ants on Mars??? Hmmmmm

Looking at it at first glance makes me think of fence posts as seen from above. That sure would be a crazy thing if it was that.... I have seen a few aerial photos that show very similar displays.

Something similar to these has been psoted before, and phage had a good explanation of them... however I don't remember what it was, and can't ifnd the thread?

Depending on the shape of the boulder and the slope, boulders can roll diagonally. I don't know how accurate the elevation model is for that area but the actual slope could be pretty different from the way it appears on Google Mars and the track could be more downslope than it appears. The intermittent nature of the track is caused by the boulder bouncing.

The crater is likely to have a raised rim (again, not apparent because of the elevation model) which caused the boulder to turn as it approached it.

The boulder which made the track is visible at the end of it.

[edit on 12/2/2009 by Phage]

A boulder seems a more likeable explanation. The line is too straight for it to be from someone walking across the landscape. Try walking across desert land in a perfect straight line as seen in 1 of those pictures.

reply to post by Phage


Really Phage? A boulder with an intermittent pattern like that from that elevation? Eh...I don't know.... Wouldn't that be quite a "bounce" for a boulder to make from this reference point? I mean...c'mon....really?

I'm no expert but...hey...i calls em as i sees em

reply to post by Agree2Disagree


So do I.









[edit on 12/3/2009 by Phage]

reply to post by Phage


Aha! Thank you. Those images do make it apparent. I was only basing my statements off the OPs pictures.

Even with those images it still doesn't add up.

Unless we can find out how close that Mars picture is taken and the size of the lines then you can only speculate.