People Seeing Life on Mars 31
Ward C. Diehl writes "Tech Central Station has an article detailing the latest round of Martian visions, over 100 years after Percival Lowell's canal 'sightings'. The article interviews astrobiologists, including Nobel laureate Richard Roberts, and one astronomer from the fringe. The latest photos from Mars Express, Opportunity, and Spirit are interpreted as sea shells, pyramids, Nasca-like lines, etc. and one truly freak-deaky crab claw. There's a great link list at the end of the article so we have a gallery these photos. Prepare to blow your Friday afternoon productivity!"
Life on Mars seeing people (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Life on Mars seeing people (Score:2)
M'alcolm: In your dreams? [C'ole shakes his head no] While you're awake? [C'ole nods]
C'ole: Walking around like regular people. They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're Earth people.
Malcolm: How often do you see them?
Cole: All the time.
Eventually we (and M'alcom) come to the shocking realization that M'alcom himself is an Earth person.
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Freaky deaky? (Score:1)
"Blow Friday afternoon productivity?" (Score:5, Funny)
Enterprise Mission (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not a big fan of George Noory, but Art's been hosting on weekends again. Yay.
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Evan
-1, Offtopic.. (Score:2, Interesting)
At least if you're going to believe in a fantasy, pick one that's internally consistent.
Re:Enterprise Mission (Score:3, Interesting)
Regular is not the word I'd use. Apparently he went on Art Bell claiming that pretty much all the visible rocks around Spirit were machine parts. Bell went along with it at first, but by the second day backed off and said "Actually, they all just look like rocks!"
It's so sad when close kooks* fall out.
[* Not in any way flamage. I participate with these guys in their usenet groups regularly. I use the term fondly.]
Snow day ;-) (Score:1)
Pyramids look cool (Score:4, Interesting)
But let's get one thing straight. Even if it does turn out that these shapes were created by intelligent hands, it does NOT mean that ancient Martians built the Egyptian or Mayan pyramids. A cone is simply a stable structure. Saying that Earthly pyramids must have been built by Martians is like saying that the doodlebug holes [antlionpit.com] and ant mounds [tamu.edu] in the back yard were built by the ancient Egyptians.
Re:Pyramids look cool (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Pyramids look cool (Score:1)
First thing that came to my mind: Devil's Tower. [google.com]
Re:Yet another kook (Score:2, Funny)
Surface object lander debris (Score:2, Insightful)
I find the lack of interest that NASA has shown for the "claw" as the article puts it, to be very interesting. I'm relatively convinced that it must be a piece of the airbag or possibly debris that was ejected when the pyros were fired to release the rover.
What I don't understand is why NASA hasn't released another image from a different angle. Aren't they at all interested in what part of the lander/rover it is? If they intend to use the airbag method for landing probes on Mars in the future why don't th
Re:Surface object lander debris (Score:2)
David Grinspoon: "We like it when people get excited about Mars exploration. Why would we ever hide the most exciting thing we could find?"
There is of c
Ignoring Surface object lander debris (Score:1)
Outer Limits (Score:1)
Anyone who's seen the Outer Limits episode "Invisible Enemy" (starring Adam West, circa 1960-something) already knows that Mars is inhabited by large, blood-thirsty creatures with crab-like claws. Awful, awful episode.
doubtful (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Here's one that's just strange.. (Score:1)
You post about some dome-looking thing, and completely ignore all the sandworms [usgs.gov] in the context pictures?
What, are you working for the Fremen?
Nasa finds a crab claw... (Score:4, Funny)
I found what I was looking for... (Score:1)
Face on Mars; Lowell Canals (Score:4, Interesting)
Sky and Telescope just did a thing about Lowell's Canals. Traditionally, planet photos are just a blur while skilled observers claim to see all kinds of stuff by waiting for glimpes of "good seeing." Look at any traditional astronomy textbook and you see these awful photos of Mars and Jupiter and Saturn. It turns out that some amateurs with CCD or WebCams can sift through tons of blury images to find the few good ones and and then use image software to stack to good images to build up contrast. Using such advanced imaging techniques, they showed some images where if you use your imagination somewhat, you can see Lowell canals.
What I want to know if there is much of any correspondence between spacecraft images of Mars and what is scene from Earth-based telescopes. The Man in the Moon is mainly three of the larger maria forming two eye sockets and a kind of Mr. Bill oooooo mouth. Stuff like Syrtis Major and the light and dark markings -- are those just wind-blown albedo features or do they correspond to some kind of continental-scale topography? How big are the Lowell Canals compared to Vallis Marinaris (I imagine Vallis Marinaris while honkin big is below what can be seen from Earth, maybe like trying to see the Grand Canyon from the Moon, but how far off is it?).
Truer words have never been typed. (Score:1)
Re:Truer words have never been typed. (Score:2)
I don't believe there's life on Mars now... (Score:2, Insightful)
...but a few million years ago? Yeah, very possible. The only problem is that photos of the surface aren't going to turn up much. We need to dig on the surface, and dig deep. But even if we don't find the remains of life, who knows what else we might find? Perhaps we shouldn't be so focused on finding life and be looking to see what we can find.