What would you say this is?

What do you think this is a picture of? Where do you think it was taken?

Give me your best guess, then go look at the answer on the links below..


The answer to the mystery, just leads to more questions. To see why and view the entire image, click here.

[edit on 11-6-2004 by jezebel]

Is it possible that the picture
is taken on Mars?

At first i though it was the roof of a house that had the .... um good words...stuufing knocked out of it, but I think it is the moon after seeing the link

yeh it does kind of resemable sand dunes of some sort on a planet... but hmm.. i have no idea what elase it could be...

a crater on mars? or the moon

For some reason, it reminds me of a flake of skin under a super microscope. How long are you going to make us wait for the answer?

It's part of the crater that Opportunity is going into, sand dune, what other questions would that bring up?

The bottom of Endurance crater?

This page will tell you what it is a picture of.

Well I guess I'm the only one who thinks it looks like waves in the ocean. Does nobody else find it strange that the dirt/sand surrounding it is totally smooth, while this particular spot looks like someone froze the ocean mid-wave? What about the trail leading out of the "water" and up the crater?

Maybe it's just me, but I think it looks very odd, and it'll be interesting to see what Opportunity has to report about it.

[edit on 11-6-2004 by jezebel]

A semi melted sheet of rubber/plastic.

So are you going to tell us or what?

The 'waves' look like small sand dunes, and are probably formed the same way.

I'm guessing that this 'pool' of dust and debris came together at the bottom of the crater due to it's shape, in the same way that leaves blow together into distinct piles on a windy day.

Hehehehe, I was WAY off! That's what I get for not checking into what's happening with Mars lately, I guess.

In a way, it does look like waves. But then, at first glance, it looks like it could be a lot of things. That's why I'm so skeptical about Mars photos. While there are some things that DO look like structures, trees, bodies of water, etc., I'm still reserving judgment for the time being.

Most likeley a USGS survey photo taken in the 1920s-1940s of a large crator in arizona. the ripple effects in the sand at the bottom of the crator indicate that it is of earth origin. celestial dust is most likey to light and lacks the gravitational structure to create such dune like charactoristics , also in the full photo there apears to be some debris, possibly wood in the lower right hand

Having worked a lot of powders in the lab, that is no where out of the ordinary for a fine grain formation.

Fine sand or metal powder often act like a fluid, so much so that powdered graphite is used as a lubricant in many machines.

I would say there is an equal chance that it is water except for two major things.

1) Those images are take over several minutes and done in mosaic, if those were waves caused by wind they wouldn't look like waves they would be streched out blurs.

2) In a crater that size the water's depth and wind speed wouldn't make waves that large.

My best guess would be sand dunes, though I assume volanic rock could end up like that as well. Also the possibility of water can't be ruled out, but take not of the two above listed resons i doubt it.

Looks like the ocean washing on to the beach to me.

Sand formation on Mars.Duh it is on a planet vastly differant to ours so logic dictates that we will not understand the planets atmosphere and weather patterns until we have studied them more closly.To be simple if we don`t know how it works we cannot conclude it is abnormal

I suppose one thing the image does show is that this is a relatively young crater. Since there's not all that much dust/sand down there. the crater itself is in a fairly flat area so dust could easily blow in to fill it up. If you knew a bit about the martian dust storms, their frequency and the volume/size of dust they carry, you could probably estimate the age of the crater.

They might even be able to learn about martian dust storms by analysing the amount of dust building up on the Rover camera calibration sundial over time. (if the rovers last that long).

I think overall though they'll be more interested in the area just below the rim, where the impact has left several clear layers of rock exposed to view. Looking at these should tell them something about the history of planet

Id go with that as well, some nice exposed rock at the rim as Muppet pointed out that will keep the Geologists happy for while.

It looks like an ocean to me. But I'm probably wrong

I found it interesting that it states...

"The colored dots in this image mosaic denote thermal data in features that make up the impact crater known as "Endurance." The data was taken by the miniature thermal emission spectrometer instrument on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The information has been overlaid onto a view of the crater from the rover's navigation camera. Blue denotes cooler temperatures of about 220 degrees Kelvin (-63.67 degrees Fahrenheit or -53.15 degrees Celsius), and red denotes warmer temperatures of about 280 degrees Kelvin (44.33 degrees Fahrenheit or 6.85 degrees Celsius). "

44.33 degrees fahrenheit?

That's amazing that there is such a difference in such a small area. Why? Also, if it above freezing there, then couldn't something live in that. I know it's not always that temp. but there might be areas on the planet that are. Anyone know?