Huge Pinnacle that cast shadow on Mars?

I stumbled upon this image www.msss.com... and detected a huge anomaly: A Pinnacle that cast shadow. Rotate the image 180° and it is more clear. WTH is that thing?


Rotate 180°


Detail

Derived values
Derived values
Longitude of image center: 70.61°W
Latitude of image center: 13.23°S
Scaled pixel width: 237.83 meters
Scaled image width: 115.19 km
Scaled image height: 119.21 km
Solar longitude (Ls): 165.66°
Local True Solar Time: 14.70 decimal hours
Emission angle: 3.47°
Incidence angle: 44.81°
Phase angle: 41.64°
North azimuth: 93.19°
Sun azimuth: 26.15°
Spacecraft altitude: 376.82 km
Slant distance: 377.45 km

Acquisition parameters
Image ID (picno): M03-00946
Image start time: 1999-07-05T20:32:32.90 SCET
Image width: 480 pixels
Image height: 480 pixels
Line integration time: 80.4800 millisec
Pixel aspect ratio: 1.05
Crosstrack summing: 1
Downtrack summing: 1
Compression type: MOC-NONE
Gain mode: 4A (hexadecimal)
Offset mode: 7 (decimal)

For what I can understand, that thing is really Big...

reply to post by Arken


Arken

I'm feeling a little Space Odyssey now.

Obelisk?

Mars, the potential planet we previously habited. Or at least someone/thing did.

Is there any co-ordinates with this so we can look it up on Google Mars?

Wow, reminds me of a Monolith or Obelisk.

Ofcorse could be a natural formation, we do have some weird rock formations on our planet which stick up like spikes and would cause long shadows.

Is there anyway to gauge the scale of the object?

Namaste.

Strange because the shadow on the mountains seems to cast differently then the oblisk ?
watching it more closely, than maybe I'm wrong.. and did you find something big!

In my opinion it looks like two wide ridges that are not too tall. Look how the sun falls... it's from the side. It fits perfectly with those two be a ridge and then to the right a lower level ridge.

reply to post by WiseThinker


At least 10km high.

You'd have thought a natural rock formation surely couldn't last at that height.

Or, I could be wrong. It's not 10km high.

reply to post by WiseThinker

Is there anyway to gauge the scale of the object?

Added all the data in the Opening Post.
For what I can understand, that thing is really big....

Looks almost like one of the twin towers zapped to mars?

That's a illusion caused by the low resolution of the picture. The tower is indeed just white and black sand.
See it here.

reply to post by MysticEngineer


Screw the "pinnacle" - Look at the rest of that terrain! Wow!!!

SHADOW! From the mountain....

reply to post by MysticEngineer


Well, someone (Phage and ArmAp) told me, dozens of times, that Google Earth/Moon/Mars IS NOT a reliable source...

Who is right?

Originally posted by MysticEngineer
That's a illusion caused by the low resolution of the picture. The tower is indeed just white and black sand.
See it here.

your 2nd image pretty well explains the situation...

the source for the visual illusion is just dark ejecta in a 'V' pattern..from what appears is a crater or a very unlikely caldera of an ancient volcano


thanks for the image

Originally posted by St Udio

Originally posted by MysticEngineer
That's a illusion caused by the low resolution of the picture. The tower is indeed just white and black sand.
See it here.

 

your 2nd image pretty well explains the situation...

the source for the visual illusion is just dark ejecta in a 'V' pattern..from what appears is a crater or a very unlikely caldera of an ancient volcano


thanks for the image

edit on 13-11-2012 by St Udio because: (no reason given)

Actually those coordinates are inside Valles Marineris.. one of largest canyons of solar system and obviously mars. If you open the 1st high resolution picture available on wikipedia, you can see the same area with the "V" pattern around (4902px, 1980px) albeit really small.
en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by Arken
reply to post by MysticEngineer

 

Well, someone (Phage and ArmAp) told me, dozens of times, that Google Earth/Moon/Mars IS NOT a reliable source...

Who is right?

edit on 13-11-2012 by Arken because: (no reason given)

Every tool available (be it Google Earth, HubbleST, HiRISE, you name it) has its engineering limitations and tolerances you have to be aware of to be able to interpret the data correctly.

reply to post by MysticEngineer


How do you get that incredibly hi-res images in Google Earth? All I get is the low-res colour version.

P.S. I found this site for all the planetary images, I think it's very reliable:
pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by Arken
reply to post by MysticEngineer

 

Well, someone (Phage and ArmAp) told me, dozens of times, that Google Earth/Moon/Mars IS NOT a reliable source...

Who is right?

edit on 13-11-2012 by Arken because: (no reason given)

Arken YOU know very well by NOW any hires image on Google Earth,Moon or Mars is usually from another source like the LRO HiRise ETC.

Did you not read the txt at the bottom of the images you were shown?

.

reply to post by wildespace


In Layers, you must tick Global Maps->CTX Mosaic. Also you can see the data strips if you tick Spacecraft Imagery->CTX Image Browser, but the external data sources from nasa seemed to be offline, reason why i didnt provided a reference link. There are other layers you can use though.

Now after enabling this if you want to see something nice, search for Orcus Patera. Zoom in to the maximum resolution with the CTX enabled and see the edges of that crater. You will find many "water" like features going down the edges.

Originally posted by MysticEngineer
That's a illusion caused by the low resolution of the picture. The tower is indeed just white and black sand.
See it here.

Where do you get that incredibly hi-res images in Google Earth?

What "kind" of Google Earth do you have?

A NEW "kind" of still not public Google Earth and not yet downloadable?

All we get is the low-res yellowish colour version.

Why and how you have that version?