First Pictures From Mars Phoenix Lander

Now that the solar panels have been deployed, the Mars Phoenix Lander has begun sending back pictures of the red planet to the hungry space geeks of earth. In just a few weeks the claw will deploy and they'll start digging a hole. The scientists expect to use the dirt to construct a little sand castle which they will defend with several GI Joe action figures, and a bald barbie stolen from their sisters. Oh, and maybe find water or bacteria.

Wow

[tingeber]

I saw the pictures of a barren landscape and my jaw fell in total awe... I was never so excited about pictures of dirt.

damn you slashdot

[grub]

I'm working on my seeminly hundredth coffee this morning after reading and watching Mars stuff until the wee hours. Now you do this to me.

Expect a bill from my employer.

Re:Wow

[steelfood]

Nothing to see here... move along.

This clip...

[thrill12]

here [nasa.gov] looks like the start of a BSG Episode. It's almost as if Moore has directed it - I expected number Six to turn up any minute, laughing, and invading our computer systems only to begin a sneak attack on the 13th colony.

Oh wait... this is reality ? In that case, I have another beer - make that five please.... And some peanuts.

Re:Interesting Object?

[Ixtl]

Can't say for sure, but my guess is it's a rock.

Re:Wow

[rubycodez]

at least it's a different plot of land this time, down the road from the plot where they faked the moon landing because it's busy with the faked mercury fly-by.

You mean

[future assassin]

well have to Register "Registration is now required to read magazine articles from Technology Review." before we talk to the aliens. Then those fuckers will space spam us with their Miagra.

Re:A Stupid question

[JustOK]

Its not that. It's waiting for the Cancel/Allow dialog.

Re:Awesome

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

Photoshop doesn't take that long to start up...

Re:Interesting Object?

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like a martian middle finger coming up from the ground...

Re:Wow

[gstoddart]

And I can't just remember what the other stuff is called, but it ain't dirt.

Other than for scientific purposes ... is there fundamentally a difference between "dirt" and "fancy Martian stuff"?

Anyone? I mean really, "fine particulate matter eroded from the local soil" is dirt no matter what planet you're on, innit?

Cheers

Re:Wow

[menace3society]

I've decided that the government faked the Moon and Mars landings to cover up what they're really doing in space. By now there's probably a working military base on the face of the Moon, just waiting for the day that somebody else tries to claim space as their turf.

Of course, they didn't reckon on finding the black monolith....

Re:Wow

[Cesa]

move along

Well, except that it...can't.

Re:Wow

[pintpusher]

No No No, all of you are wrong. George Carlin put it best when he said (paraphrasing) "Dirt is just stuff that's in the wrong place." When it's in a flower pot, it's potting soil, when it's in the compost pile it's, well, compost, or at least on the way there. When it's falling off your shoes onto the couch it's dirt. Get that dirt out of here!

Likewise, I tell my kids that "weeds" are just "plants" that are growing somewhere someone doesn't want them. We all like dandelions, so when the neighbors complain about the weeds, I say, what, you mean that grass there?

Re:Wow

[stefanlasiewski]

And I can't just remember what the other stuff is called, but it ain't dirt.

I think the fancy word you may be looking for is sand [wikipedia.org]. NASA uses all sorts of fancy words, such as dirt & soil [nasa.gov].

Go ahead and call it dirt.

Re:Colour?

[R3d M3rcury]

Actually, the photos are in color. Mars is black and white. The color pictures you see of Mars are actually "false color", meaning that there is no color there whatsoever and NASA just added it so people looking at the pictures on their TVs or the Internet wouldn't be confused.

It's the same principle as colorizing old movies.