Curiosity: Potential Anomalies (Update 01/2014)

BuzzDengue
Come on ArMaP, Is this a JPEG troll on me? ; ) ... so...jpeg artifacts that only surround the arc of the circumference and stay away the circular center area, and the different jpeg artifacts matching up in the shadow cast on the ground?

No, no JPEG troll.

First of all, if the "holes" in the rock match the "holes" in the shadow, the holes in the shadow should appear with the same shape distortion present on the shadow, and that does not happen, the "holes" only match on the horizontal because the width of the rock is the same as the width of the shadow.

Now, I think you should study a little how JPEG compression works, but as this is faster and easier to see by anyone, here is one image I made, more or less replicating the rock with the shadow (I know, my artistic talent is worse than that of a chimpanzee ). The first image is the PNG version, without any artefacts, the second is a JPEG version, with a compression level close to what I think is the compression level used on the original NASA image, 75%.

PNG version


JPEG version


As you can see the areas surrounding the edge of the darker areas are full of pixel of different shades, and that's a result of the way JPEG works, as it creates high contrast areas whenever it sees a sharp transition in colour.

BTW, any news on the ".DAT" image viewing?

It's slowly advancing, but it's advancing.

reply to post by BuzzDengue


buzz , ive not used the pixel address , how do you activate that in ifraview?

just looking through sol 538 now , the trails of matter that oozes out of the ground is striking , on this pick I noticed something pointy ,attached to something that lays over the oozy stuff , highlighted




sol 538


@ Blueshift , hey frood , hows the chowder going sass?


@ArMaP , oooo them jpg compression artifacts, quick question to you , do you ever notices inconsistances in the image your viewing, sometimes where they appear more abundant , or takie on a characteristic that is out of context in the picture ?



funBox

I was looking at these pics again, trying to see if BlueIt was laying down along the slope of the rock and if its right arm was itself the right breast of the rock or if it was just laying its arm on the right breast (we've all been there), when I realized that in all the commotion of BlueIt leaving and the breasts later appearing that I can't recall us talking about what's holding BlueIt/Breast rock up?

It seems to be elevated on tiny supports, with everything else for the most part under it being air. What's that about? This was certainly an interesting rock.

BuzzDengue
To all, I think they pulled this picture from the "RAW Images" page... can't find it now. Can anybody else, is it just me zoning out?

This one?
mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

funbox
@ Blueshift , hey frood , hows the chowder going sass?

Unfortunately the best roads for the rover are the worst for finding fossils. Best to get into a rocky area that used to be shoreline at one time, someplace between the sludge and the shore where things could grow, rather than drag along a relatively flat lake or river bottom.

But I'm not driving the thing.

reply to post by Blue Shift


indeed , although the plain areas maybe a little more susceptible to erosion , there maybe a few more clams to be uncovered yet

funBox

funbox
indeed , although the plain areas maybe a little more susceptible to erosion , there maybe a few more clams to be uncovered yet

The rover team guys just love stratification. Probably because it reminds them so much of Earth. Like in the Grand Canyon. They'll drive miles and miles to find an area with a lot of stratification, just to look at it. I assume that's why they're in such a hurry to get to the mountains in the distance. To look at the stratification.

reply to post by Aleister


being positioned where it is next to the wheelie rock , ide say it was a good contender at being a broken bust , definatly no starter bra supporting them

funBox

ArMaP

BuzzDengue
To all, I think they pulled this picture from the "RAW Images" page... can't find it now. Can anybody else, is it just me zoning out?

This one?
mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

There's a whole bunch of "What the heck is that?" in that photo. Just saying, for anyone that wants to take a closer look.

Blue Shift
The rover team guys just love stratification.

Stratification shows the story of the place.

I assume that's why they're in such a hurry to get to the mountains in the distance. To look at the stratification.

That's why they chose this place, because they thought it was a dry lake and because of the mountain in the centre of the crater, apparently made by the deposition of sediments along the time that was a lake (probably not really a lake but a wider area in something like a river or channel).

reply to post by BuzzDengue


I don't understand how to use the pixel address.

papajake

MarioOnTheFly
reply to post by Aleister

 

A cave entrance

It would be awesome if you found a cave entrance. Have you checked the scale of that area to confirm it's large enough to have a cave with a tiled entrance?

The people are tinie weenie so perfect...

Like this guy

Char-Lee
I don't understand how to use the pixel address.

What software do you use?

This was discovered by opportunity and I don't see it mentioned so sorry if a repeat. A rock appears upside down that wasn't there previously. May hold evidence of water IMO.

"It's about the size of a jelly doughnut," Squyres told Discovery News. "It was a total surprise, we were like 'wait a second, that wasn't there before, it can't be right. Oh my god! It wasn't there before!’ We were absolutely startled." But the rover didn't roll over that area, so where did Pinnacle Island come from?

www.space.com...


Update.

“We’ve taken pictures of both the doughnut part and the jelly part,” he said at the event. “We got our first data on the composition of the jelly yesterday.”

The dark-red portion has lots of sulfur and magnesium, as well as twice as much manganese as anything previously measured on Mars. The results have deeply confused NASA scientists, Squyres said and have inspired heated debates about what this could mean

.

www.washingtonpost.com... story.html

reply to post by Dianec


indeed there was a thread on this with some great info and discussion

Mystery rock appears..

I eager to see more photos of the interior of the rock , the red bit , to me it looks kinda blue on the interior see pic



funBox

Thank you for the link. It could also be volcanic ash but why would this rock have that and also be so easy to flip over I suppose (would have eroded away). I'm sure they have state of the art tech to tell what precisely it is. How exciting

funbox
reply to post by BuzzDengue

 

buzz , ive not used the pixel address , how do you activate that in ifraview?

IrfanView-Put the cursor point on the intended target, hold down the left mouse button, and look at the top header on the left side... the XY coordinates are shown in the parenthesis... If you let up on the left mouse button, it toggles off.
for example "XY: (767,881)"
I save the file name with the NASA/JPL official name with the pixel address concatenated and a very brief description. It makes for a long file name, but well worth the effort.
for example " 0538ML2121006000E1_DXXX 767-881 Vertical White Pipe.png
Hope that clarifies.

reply to post by BuzzDengue


Nice one Buzz , that makes identifying your spots, a helluva lot easier for me
especially on the panoramas , them things are worst than a needle ...

funBox

Char-Lee
reply to post by BuzzDengue

 

I don't understand how to use the pixel address.

Hi Char-Lee, The top left pixel in an image is X address 0 (zero) and Y address 0 (zero) or 0X,0Y or further 0,0.

If the pixel target is 973, 377, you are trying to center that pixel coordinate in the center of your viewing frame and zoom in or out to the appropriate level to view the target in question. Like the game "Battleship" with uber-tiny pegs.

I always reference the target pixel address to the original NASA/JPL images only, for verification purposes.

You have to figure out how to get your viewing software package to divulge the pixel address to you (IrfanView is hold down the left mouse button and look to the left side of the top header.)

Is the above what you needed answered?

Blue Shift

 

I think it's a waste of time to look for structures or statues or large pieces of machinery. I think the only possibly reasonable things to look for are fragments of biological structures, fossils, and other stuff that might have actually existed in the Martian environment before it all went to hell. Even then the chances of finding those things are pretty slim, and it's very easy to be fooled by things that have apparent symmetry caused by purely natural processes.

I wouldn't say it's completely inconceivable. Fossils are certainly more within the range of what we can imagine, that's true. But the fundamental questions are: what happened to Mars, when did it happen and how did that affect the surface of the red planet over the millenia? As long as we can't answer that, I don't see why we should exclude any of the hypothetical scenarios.

But even IF we exclude any ancient intelligent civilization originating from Mars itself, there would still be the possibility that an ET species might have visited our solar system in the remote past. Could these visitors possbily have left traces on Mars and other planets/moons as well? Just a thought, but one that IMO shouldn't be ignored at this early stage of Mars exploration.