Curiosity: Potential Anomalies (Update 01/2014)

Having looked through a couple of pages of this thread, all I see is something very blurry and pixelated. Not enough to even spur an idea that it might be something other than rocks and sand.

It's like looking for objects in a splotch of ink on paper.

reply to post by wildespace


To some extent I have to agree with you ... the majority of what is found, especially on the low-res navcam images, could well be rocks, shadows or sand. Here go some of the potential problems I see with such finds:

- extensive zoom settings
- smoothing by resampling (side-effect/zoom)
- wrong interpretation of shadows & colors
- tricks of perspective
- no additional info available (apart from 'visual' data)
- too much focus on the far-field in the distance
- low base resolution of certain images
- possibility of jpeg compression artifacts (patterns)
- pareidolia

(...)

If the outlines of an anomalous shape are not visible in the unzoomed original image, then there's no need to blow it up just to make the edges smoother. Although zooming can help visualizing what we mean, in some cases, if not applied too extensively.

However, I also have to say that some of the finds in this thread are highly peculiar and seem 'out of place' when compared to their particular context.

I prefer to keep looking and scanning the image archives for any potential irregularities rather than to sit and wait for official news items about potential ancient life on Mars. Because if we do that, we might have to wait for a very long time (while overlooking 'the obvious' in the images right in front of us) ...

Aleister
And how to explain the distinctive rim?

What distinctive rim?

ArMaP

Aleister
And how to explain the distinctive rim?

What distinctive rim?

That quote refers specifically to BuzzDengue's first discovery and funbox's photo illustrations, which visually include an undulating rim around the object which seems to contain and is attached to the "spokes", and even undulates down and around the bottom left hand "spoke" which you see as a stand-along rock in front of the rest of the material or object. That the rim and object seem to be tilted at an angle and not laying flat on the ground at least gives us a little break and presents the object more face-on to the camera:




There also seems to be a rim around an object Char-Lee found, an object which fits into the wider category I was discussing:

wildespace
Having looked through a couple of pages of this thread, all I see is something very blurry and pixelated. Not enough to even spur an idea that it might be something other than rocks and sand.

It's like looking for objects in a splotch of ink on paper.

Totally agree with you about most of what has pointed to on the thread, especially later in the thread. Most of the things talked about give rocks and sand a bad name. But then the exceptions make it worthwhile. There are quite a few of those now.

Earlier in the thread you did seem to have more of an interest in Buzz's object than you indicate in your current post, and put up a nice cross-eyed image of it: www.abovetopsecret.com...

And an object I'm interested in, the object I'm playfully calling the Little Green Martian (LGM) which presently sits in my avatar, gets a little less blurry when the zoom is taken back. If it is a rock - and or course it must be, ? - what type of rock. I'll put up a less blurry image of it, again by funbox:

stcam: Left * 

2014-01-26
14:42:38 UTC

Is this an S on a rock?

same image less zoom

reply to post by michael1888


*funbox puts his helmet on in anticipation of the hail of "rock"*

a split symmetry there I reckon

funBox

reply to post by michael1888

Can't see it, but I did notice that picture has a large amount of pixel and other distortions, which may be creating part of what you are seeing. And even if it has an "S" that's not a very unusual shape in nature or worn into rocks. That's not to discourage you, this is a fun endeavor, this looking at Mars rocks for unusual bits, and panning through a ton of rock sometimes yields a pebble of gold. I would advise, just as a fellow user keeping an eye on this thread, that you don't post everything you spot but select the best or very best ones, but you can ignore that advice and laugh in my face and I will join you in the laughter (from inside my face). Good to meet you, and if you have a few days - well, maybe an hour or so - please read and explore the entire thread, it'd be good to have a fresh viewpoint of it as well as educate yourself a little on what to look for in terms of photo artifacts which distort the image, a lesson I'm learning the hard way (see my pixel skeleton somewhere in the bowels of the thread, sigh).

reply to post by michael1888


I see the curved feature that I think you are referring to. My guess is that it's shadows and light reflections from a wind-eroded, curved fracture in the rock. From a distance, it seems to look a bit like it's 'embossed' ... just my 2 cents!

reply to post by Aleister


Thanks Aleister, I have read the whole thread over a number of days and appreciate all you regular contributors work and research.
I certainly will not post every image I see but the big bright S shape nearer the bottom of the image to my left seems unusual to me and I wanted others opinions.

Keep up the good work

reply to post by michael1888


You're welcome, and thank you as well. Welcome to the monkey house thread, where world-shaking finds (and by world I mean Mars) occur on a daily basis. Or at least once a year. I see the S now (when you said "bright" that's what drew my eye to it), and although it just seem to be the way the sun is reflecting off a mid-to-high reflective surface, it's a very stylalistic (sp) "S", like the old monk lettering, and I like the little flairs pointing up from the top and downwards from the bottom left.

EDIT: Grabbed it as a picture, and yeah, very fancy. You could design an entire new font from a style like this:

Aleister
That quote refers specifically to BuzzDengue's first discovery and funbox's photo illustrations, which visually include an undulating rim around the object which seems to contain and is attached to the "spokes", and even undulates down and around the bottom left hand "spoke" which you see as a stand-along rock in front of the rest of the material or object.

Thanks for the explanation, but I don't see it.

reply to post by ArMaP


I can't be imagining that, can I? (runs to take meds, wait, I take no meds, except the common one). Remember when I saw a "first" version of the rock flipping video you made (and I'd still swear in court I saw it, which is why eyewitness testimony is often the worse kind of testimony). Come to think of it, nobody has commented (that I can recall) on the rim running along the spokes (the spokes are sunken a little ways under the rim), it's either so obvious that it deserves no comment or I am seeing things and need to put my head back into the clouds. Will run it by again, using a patented funbox trademarked always-entertaining graphic. The rim runs along the left side and top, and then is replaced by the solid rock portion of the entire object.:

reply to post by Aleister


I don't want to alarm you to much Aleister but I think the blueit has gone missing , ether that or he's curled up asleep on the wheel thingy



sol[url]

funBox

reply to post by jeep3r


Just for the 'archives', some interesting geometry in a Sol 517 image:


Original NASA/JPL Image (Sol 517)

reply to post by wildespace


I think this balloon like object is pretty clear at the base of the rover on the panorama. Does anyone know if it has to do with the landing or something?
www.360cities.net...,21.20,59.0



I think this looks organic there is a second tube shape sticking out of the rock.
mars.jpl.nasa.gov...




Guess everything we get from the pictures IS blurry :-(

BuzzDengue
reply to post by Char-Lee

 

Char-Lee- What is the image number and pixel address on this one? Thanks

I don't know, if you mean on the panorama pictures i have no idea how to tell.

reply to post by Char-Lee


an what is that little wormy stringy bit coming off it ? looks like a deflated balloon


@ jeep , interesting geometric structures just like this one where I reckon Aleister's blueit has gone to play in the sand



d


funBox