Forget Saturn's Ring - Mars has Bling
Posted by Greg at 00:24, 06 Feb 2013
Mars just keeps throwing up surprises: the Curiosity rover has imaged a metallic-like protuberance emerging from a rock:
Visible in the image above, the protuberance appears to have a high albedo and even projects a shadow on the rock below. The image was taken with the right Mastcam on Curiosity on Sol 173 — January 30, 2013 here on Earth...
...the protuberance seems different than the rock on which it sits – it could be composed of material more resistant to erosion than the rest and similar material could be within the rock, or it could be something that is “grown” on the rock. However, it looks fairly smooth, and in fact it is not covered by dust as is the case for metal surfaces that tend to clean easily.
But “small” is the operative word here, as the little protuberance is probably about 0.5 cm tall, or even smaller.
The full image from NASA/JPL can be found here.
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Comments
18 September 2007
16 hours 2 min
That looks a heck of a lot like labradorite, moonstone, or something in that mineral family.
14 April 2009
3 weeks 2 days
Gypsum? Opal?
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All that lives is holy, life delights in life.
--William Blake
18 September 2007
16 hours 2 min
Or perhaps two little pieces of quartz refracting the sunlight. The sun angle is correct for causing that relative to the camera view.
20 April 2005
2 days 18 hours
I think it's a hood ornament from a buried Jaguar.
Terry
Thought I'd something more to say.
29 January 2009
4 days 3 hours
Greg if you were a lifeform something like those gold 'shitting' bugs which recently received publicity a good way of collecting/deflecting heat might be to burgeon a couple of 'radar' dishes and making them concave'd be useful if you could work with microscopic amounts of periodic condensation.
Whatever this is it certainly throws into relief the martian 'flower' which to go by the shadow that cast stood up something like as tall.
Like most anomalies which might be said to contradict the current scientific paradigms though they'll probably be classed as the exceptions that prove the rule and quickly disregarded.
21 January 2005
32 min 17 sec
Bigfoot.
29 January 2009
4 days 3 hours
It's just hit me what it reminds me of.
I was thinking of a modern artist's take on a tap or even a stylised pair of scales but I was just reading Nick Redfern's list of likes over at Cryptomundo and noting his fondness for Tennents and Carlsberg when the image suddenly flashed in my mind of an old plonky I used to know as a kid who used to leave a trail of bottle caps everywhere she went so she could find her way back home.
3 March 2008
6 weeks 3 days
Judging by the original NASA picture, it's a symmetrical metal object sticking out of stone. So, it must have survived at least one spin in the magmatic bowels of mars....
Dear god, it has to be made out of adamantium!
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The flap of a butterfly's wings in the Atlantic may cause it to fly.
18 September 2007
16 hours 2 min
Or unobtanium.
12 April 2007
13 hours 42 min
A senior Martian's fake denture
It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
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