Fossilized Spines and Vertebrae of Big Creatures in Curiosity Sol 109!

reply to post by easynow


It is a really good question !

reply to post by florentb


...unfortunately, late replies are not posted Under the comments.

reply to post by qmantoo

qmantoo
I really dont think that any of us can say with any certainty that anything is rocks and anything is not rocks. Mainly because of the absolutely abysmal photo definition without any better available. It is completely inconeivable that after spending that much on a space project, that there are not better images available to some sections of the science community. This is what we should all get together and demand, not be split arguing whether something is a rock or is it natural or not. However, maybe that division is an agenda which has to be promoted in order to divide and conquor.

By the way, I notice no-one has popped up to tell us what the pillar and stick-shaped 'rocks' are. Maybe thats because they think it is obvious, but it is not obvious on an unihabited lifeless planet.

So please, anyone who thinks these are rocks, tell us how they came to be there in stick-shapes and pillar-shapes? Also, why we have such crappy image quality too without any better available and why you are happy with this quality.

Totally agree with you on both points you make! I would have starred you but for some reason I am no longer able to do that - could be a browser problem but don't know why I am still able to post and upload but not star (@ Moderator - any ideas?).


it is bizarre that the moderator posts that kind of comment. As a moderator they express the views of the site itself, at least this is what is implied by the role of moderator. They might be rocks, but the OP has done an excellent job of showing that alternative explanations for those objects are equally if not MORE likely.

It is indeed very odd that we can find HD photos of the moons of mars and yet not get the same quality shots of things on the surface of the planet. In fact there is no good rational reason for this to be the case, apart from the desire not to allow the public to have that kind of information about what sits on the surface of Mars.

Tallone
Totally agree with you on both points you make! I would have starred you but for some reason I am no longer able to do that - could be a browser problem but don't know why I am still able to post and upload but not star (@ Moderator - any ideas?).

Do you see an empty (just the outline) star? Clicking it should turn it into a green star. If it does then it's working.

As a moderator they express the views of the site itself, at least this is what is implied by the role of moderator.

Moderators are, first of all, members like any other, they just use some of their time to help keeping the forum working as it should.

It is indeed very odd that we can find HD photos of the moons of mars and yet not get the same quality shots of things on the surface of the planet. In fact there is no good rational reason for this to be the case, apart from the desire not to allow the public to have that kind of information about what sits on the surface of Mars.

Photos taken from orbit by a 65 kg camera are obviously different from the photos taken by a small camera that has as its main purpose to take photos of rocks at a short distance. The quality of the photos taken by both cameras is similar, the difference is in the targets and the number of pixels in the images.

reply to post by ArMaP


Hi Mod. I really appreciate your reply.

Without wishing to sound outright obnoxious I have been on this board a while. Just returned from a bit of a break. I know how to post, begin threads, upload images to them, and flag and star others. I am unable to star anymore. It could be the firefox browser I am using. But I have used that for a long while. Not sure what to make of it really.

Apart from being unable to star anyone for a day or two now, the preview button will not work. I always used to use it, not I can't. Maybe it is some problem to do with the browser, but I don't get what it could be.

reply to post by ArMaP

Moderators are, first of all, members like any other, they just use some of their time to help keeping the forum working as it should.

Well you are the moderator here so I need be careful I guess - and that is precisely the problem I point to. If the mod posts to inform they have imposed some restraint on the poster, and then in the same posts makes a negative evaluative comment on the basis of that posters argument the entire thread rests on (that these images show fossils /alien artifacts and not mere inorganic rocks or metals) they risk in my eyes devaluing the legitimacy of the the site (ATS) itself. I mean people should feel as though they are able to post here about anything ATS-like they want so long as they don't overstep the sites legal and ethical restrictions. Right? People shouldn't be getting the idea that the site itself (thru the mod) may well tell them their argument is crap / doesn't conform with the perspective the site wants people to view the subject at hand.

When the mod is seen to imply that is the case on a particular thread (like this one) then people just may feel like the site is really a platform for propaganda coming at them from the corporates /gubement - - - (or add your own particularly suspect) but presented as benign, as a public forum. That's pretty much what I am getting at here.

Photos taken from orbit by a 65 kg camera are obviously different from the photos taken by a small camera that has as its main purpose to take photos of rocks at a short distance. The quality of the photos taken by both cameras is similar, the difference is in the targets and the number of pixels in the images.

About the cameras on that Martian vehicle.

There is fairly obviously at least one camera aboard Curiosity able to take images in HD. You can go to Curiosity web site and find those. HD photos of the surface of Mars taken by the rover are available on the Internet. For example - www.huffingtonpost.com...

NASA chooses what it publishes in HD and what it publishes in seriously grainy looking images (by comparison to the HD images especially).

Tallone
Hi Mod. I really appreciate your reply.

You can call me ArMaP, like all other people here, that way it makes it easier to know who you're talking to.

I'll try FIrefox to see if I can find the problem.

Well you are the moderator here so I need be careful I guess - and that is precisely the problem I point to. If the mod posts to inform they have imposed some restraint on the poster, and then in the same posts makes a negative evaluative comment on the basis of that posters argument the entire thread rests on (that these images show fossils /alien artifacts and not mere inorganic rocks or metals) they risk in my eyes devaluing the legitimacy of the the site (ATS) itself. I mean people should feel as though they are able to post here about anything ATS-like they want so long as they don't overstep the sites legal and ethical restrictions. Right? People shouldn't be getting the idea that the site itself (thru the mod) may well tell them their argument is crap / doesn't conform with the perspective the site wants people to view the subject at hand.

As I wrote before, the moderators only help enforce the rules, that's why we do not act as moderators in threads where we are posting as members and vice-versa.

So, when I post my opinion about something (specially when using that "The following is my opinion as a member participating in this discussion" border that I forget to add most of the times and most people ignore) in a thread that's just that, my personal opinion, it should be treated as someone else's opinion.

About the cameras on that Martian vehicle.

There is fairly obviously at least one camera aboard Curiosity able to take images in HD. You can go to Curiosity web site and find those. HD photos of the surface of Mars taken by the rover are available on the Internet. For example - www.huffingtonpost.com...

NASA chooses what it publishes in HD and what it publishes in seriously grainy looking images (by comparison to the HD images especially).

I know about those cameras, I have made several panoramas with the photos taken with them.

The cameras with the highest resolution are the MastCams, capable of taking photos with a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels for photos and 1280 × 720 at 10 frames per second for video, but resolution is not a measurement of image quality, you can have a high resolution image with bad quality and a low resolution image with very good quality, as quality depends mostly of things outside the camera, like light level and dust. Also, being autofocus cameras, they can easily fail at it, and return out of focus images.

But yes, NASA (and the other organisations working on those missions) publishes what they want, obviously.

reply to post by ArMaP


Good on you. Good reply. I will overhaul my firefox browser - update and strip out the apps and see if that works.

You have not convinced me about the duality of being a moderator and poster though. I mean come on, you have 'moderator' on you avatar. That surely takes priority over any fancy borders or disclaimer you include in your post, and as you imply people don't always pay attention to all of the text in your post. The avatar though, that is the presented identity we are supposed to use for context when we consider your POV, right?

Massively off topic I know.

reply to post by Tallone

So are you of the opinion that Moderators should never post, even in threads they are not moderating??

reply to post by Chamberf=6

Hahahahaha. No.

Just a suggestion here but you may just want to read a bit further up from the last post to follow the conversation. Otherwise it is kind of like jumping at shadows. Reacting when you see a color you don't like, that kind of thing.

reply to post by Tallone

I did before I posted and then some.

And it left me with the question I asked.

I've been keeping tabs on this thread since I replied early in the thread.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Dinobots...just a theory right now

reply to post by Arken


I don't know for sure in this particular case, it's hard to tell just from a couple of low-res pictures, but if I had to pick between rocks or bones, I'd pick bones. Looks too symmetrical for a bunch of rocks. Some rocks can look fairly similar, but the way these objects are shaped and aligned makes me think fossils. Ancient fossils to be exact. I'm convinced Mars was pretty much like Earth at some point in the past, perhaps in the not too distant past even. Somewhere between ten thousand and ten million years ago would be my rough guess. Considering how close Mars is, in relation to Earth and the Sun - compared to the rest of the planets in the Solar System, and things we are only beginning to understand and discover, all evidence gathered so far points to life. Perhaps not complex life, but some form of life nonetheless. I'm not sold on the idea of ET's or Humans on Mars, YET, but bacteria, animals and plants? I think that's a given. It would be naive and arrogant to think otherwise. The only question is WHAT kind of animals and plants.

Thanks for the thread!

I appreciate your threads and your enthusiasm, but you would have given Rorschach a run for his money.

I love these kinds of pics, scouring through pictures of mars anomalies is an awesome weekend venture for some here on this lovely site...
Lets do something about it! invest heavily into SpaceX and lets get a mission started for Mars! Sure, its IN the works, but BOY! would it be cool to take those first steps towards exploration of the red planet to see for ourselves....
I honestly imagine walking through hoagland's martian city, in the shadows of massive ancient alien monuments to long forgotten unknown alien gods, giant petrified bones of giant beast that roamed the outskirts of these martian cities, massive crumbling sphere domes an abandoned cities beneath, vast underground aquaducks of rotting plumbing an unstable platforms....
My god I would love to be one of those explorers...
I truly believe that life once was, an is now, there...alive or dead, we will see this dead world....AND, once AGAIN, REVIVE IT!!!! With humanity ingenuity, industry, exploration, hard work and sweat, we will bring back the flame of this forgotten world, inject it with life and bring unto fruits of our labor....an honor its previous tenants, maybe find enough viable DNA to clone something back...


Anyways, awesome thread OP, S&F!!

reply to post by Arken
I would like to draw everyone's attention to an astonding object in a hi - res Gigapan Image created by Impreprex of Curiousity sols 107 / 109. In the lower right corner, wedged between two rocks is a half of a perfectly formed white coffee mug or a small plane pot. There absolutely nothing else like it (in color) in the rest of the photo. Only this photo gives great detail of this object that looks as if it was placed there to be protected....

www.gigapan.com...

Please search near the end of all the snapshots under the panorama for this closeup and try to explain this object to me and the world.

J White

reply to post by nomickeyshere

Please search near the end of all the snapshots under the panorama for this closeup and try to explain this object to me and the world.

Hi there.
Unfortunately I cannot dowload that panorama.
Please insert and show the "Anomaly" you refer to.

reply to post by nomickeyshere

I'm not finding it. Can you do a cutout of the thing? Thanks. (there is also a thread for Mars pics which is pretty active, maybe you can put this on there too. www.abovetopsecret.com...

My girlfriends brother whom is a geologist was one of 5 people in the last 10 years to take a course about astro-planetary geology or something along those lines. Something to do with space rocks and moon / mars geological formations.
I think I'll show this to him and see what he says. He was one of 3 who actually passed the course.

Looks pretty convincing tho.

strongfp
My girlfriends brother whom is a geologist was one of 5 people in the last 10 years to take a course about astro-planetary geology or something along those lines. Something to do with space rocks and moon / mars geological formations.
I think I'll show this to him and see what he says. He was one of 3 who actually passed the course.

Looks pretty convincing tho.

i wouldnt mind doing that course!

strongfp
My girlfriends brother whom is a geologist was one of 5 people in the last 10 years to take a course about astro-planetary geology or something along those lines. Something to do with space rocks and moon / mars geological formations.
I think I'll show this to him and see what he says. He was one of 3 who actually passed the course.

Looks pretty convincing tho.

That's a pretty kind move & much appreciated ... it'd be great if you then came back to this thread to tell us what that formation could be in his view, thanks again for that initiative!