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- Here is a developing listing of curious features on Mars
that I have found in the latest 25,000 Martian photographs released by
Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS). I will list the URLs along with brief
commentary about each. I truly do not know what many of these features
are -- nor, I suspect, do many other people. But I have seen enough in
the many hours I have already spent browsing the flood of new images from
Mars to think that the so-called "Face on Mars" may be the least
of the mysteries Earth's neighbor holds.
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- A number of people have sent me links to other Mars photos
they find interesting. The first five links in this report of 31 May 2000
feature Mars images sent me by an alert, sharp-eyed reader.
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- 1) http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/images/M0001895.html
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- Here is a crater with a bright, white deposit in its
bowl. The white material appears to be snow -- likely either water ice
or dry ice, or perhaps some of both.
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- 2) http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/jpegctxmaps/M0202145.jpg
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- Here is another view of the same crater in the first
image.
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- 3) http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/jpegctxmaps/M0303450.jpg
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- Yet one more view of the same crater. NASA/JPL/MSSS like
this crater -- they have photographed it multiple times. I believe they
recognize its significance, i.e., this crater bowl contains precipitation,
albeit of the frozen variety, while the surrounding terrain does not. If
this phenomenon is broadly applicable to other craters across Mars, then
it speaks to the idea I first broached in my 29 May 2000 posting: Martian
craters may be a good place to search for life, because the physical characteristics
of craters would serve to funnel any moisture that collected there down
to the basins in the bottom of their bowls. Such moisture need not be visible
on the surface, by the way. It could collect underground as a sort of subsurface
water table that any hypothetical Martian life forms could conceivably
draw upon, perhaps via some sort of root system that would be analogous
to those of the terrestrial life forms, green plants, that we know and
love.
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- 4) http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/images/M0306104.html
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- Here is a really fascinating image! Two craters with
a similarly (though not identically) shaped "splotch", side by
side. And the splotches are even located at approximately the same position
in both craters. If the splotches are actually communities of life forms,
this is consistent with what one would expect to find. Why? Because in
two craters so close together, the influence of wind, soil, precipitation,
rock strata, erosion, sediment deposition and sunlight would be so similar
as to be virtually identical. Hence, any hypothetical community of life
forms found in both could plausibly be expected to react very similarly
to a very nearly identical set of environmental influences.
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- 5) http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/mediummaps/M0306104.jpg
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- And here is a wonderful closeup of the corner of the
"splotch" in the largest crater, of the two. Scroll down to the
bottom of the image. Click on the image to enlarge it. Voila! Very neat
and tidy and clearly circumscribed. To my eye, it looks like the "splotch"
is an irregular assortment of myriad smaller, dark "blotches".
This is perfectly consonant with what is observable with respect to Pasteur
Crater (http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/images/M0201821.html
and also see image number 7 in "Curious Martian Anomalies: Part II"
http://www.sightings.com/general/martian2.htm).
Interestingly, the dark "blotches" in this crater are sprinkled
across a dune field. As it happens, the dune field ends precisely where
the dark "blotches" end, or is it vice-versa? I wonder if we
are seeing some sort of life, perhaps something analogous to terrestrial
vegetation, that has "rooted" itself on this dune field? If so,
there is a terrestrial analog -- on the so-called Outer Banks of the coastal
region of North Carolina, USA there are beautiful sand dunes along the
sea shore. And growing in the sand dunes are many clumps of a tall grass
called "sea oats". Perhaps, like me, some of the readers of this
post have seen those same North Carolina dunes and admired the clumps of
sea oats growing there. Are we seeing something similar to that here in
this Martian photo? Are the myriad dark "blotches" clumps of
some sort of life form that has anchored itself to this dune field? Or
are we simply looking at a bunch of dark rocks poking up through the sands
of Mars? Personally, I find the possibility that we are looking at Martian
life to be a very appealing and exciting thought. What do you think? Is
it possible we are seeing Martian life in this photo? Or is it all just
a bunch of sterile rocks and sand?
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- 6) http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/images/M0101848.html
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- From Thaumasia. This one seems awfully fuzzy and blurry.
Either the photo is taken through a patch of fog or clouds or it has been
digitally blurred. I don't at all dismiss the possibility that it has been
deliberately made blurry. Why do I say that? For two reasons: 1) I see
a very interesting arrangement of rectilinear lines and 90 degree angles
in the middle of the image, about 1/3 of the way down from the top. If
you click on the image, and enlarge it in your browser, you will see what
I mean. http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/mediummaps/M0101848.jpg)
If there are ancient ruins on Mars, this is the sort of thing you might
reasonably expect to find. 2) At about the middle of the image there are
two large and conspicuous black blots. In this case, I rather doubt that
they are the same sort of black "splotches" that are so prevalent
elsewhere in craters and stream beds. These black blots seem rather too
stark and clear, given the otherwise general blurriness of the majority
of the other features in the photo. I rather suspect the NASA/JPL/MSSS
digital air brush has been busy in this photo, obscuring some very interesting,
geometrically regular features with big black "blots". But even
the "blotting out" is fascinating: the "blots" have
pronounced right angles and perfectly straight edges! Look at them. Carefully.
See what I mean? Did the censor perhaps feel a twinge of guilt, so s/he
censored by faithfully reproducing the outline of the censored features,
so as to leave a piece of evidence for people with inquiring minds to ponder?
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- 7) http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/images/M0001717.html
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- This image is entitled "Pre-Dawn Exposure. Of course,
pre-dawn means the sun is not up yet. In other words, pre-dawn means things
are still pretty dark. So why take a photo in the pre-dawn? Maybe to see
if anything is making light in the pre-dawn dark? But what would make light
in the pre-dawn dark on Mars? Maybe some of those rectilinear, right-angled
dark rocks sticking up through the cold, sterile desert sand? (See just
above.)
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- And now I want to present another sort of troubling evidence
for your consideration. As I have browsed through the many thousands of
"new" Martian photos that Malin Space Science Systems has downloaded
to the internet I have noticed more than a few blank images, or images
so seriously degraded as to be devoid of observable detail. Or boxes where
images should be, but where all that can be seen is a small, red "x",
and nothing more. When I encountered one or two images like this, I thought
they were merely mistakes, that someone had forgotten to activate a hyperlink,
or something of the sort. But as I encountered more and more of them, I
began to wonder if it might not be purposeful. Mr. Malin may have announced
that he has downloaded 25,000 images to the web. But in actuality, an unknown
number (more than just a handful) of those "images" appear to
be blank, or so seriously degraded as to yield virtually no observable
detail, or to be, in reality, merely a small red "x", and nothing
more.
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- 8) http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/mediummaps/M0204296.jpg
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- Here is one of Malin's Pulitzer Prize winners, just chock
full of intriguing detail. It is taken from the following image of the
"Sample inner ring mountains of Lowell Crater", where the white
rectangle is. Is this merely a Malin oversight or is it censorship by glaring,
in-your-face omission of evidence? You decide. http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/images/M0204296.html
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- 9) http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/mediummaps/M0202750.jpg
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- Here is another scintillating narrow angle photo of...
of... well, of nothing at all. It is taken from this image: http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/images/M0202750.html.
Is Malin hiding something? Was there something in this photo that NASA/JPL/MSSS
think you and I should not see? Or did the picture just not come out well?
Did Malin perhaps have a bad digital camera day? You decide.
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- 10) http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/images/M0002251.html
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- A red "x". Is Malin hiding something on the
"Southern Terminator"? Was there something in this photo that
NASA/JPL/MSSS think you and I should not see? Or did the picture just not
come out well? (Well, actually there is nothing there at all. Period. Zip.
Nada.) Did Malin perhaps have another bad digital camera day? You decide.
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- 11) http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/images/M0001875.html
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- Sigh. Another red "x". Yet another bad camera
day? You decide.
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- And that is how it goes looking at the Malin Mars photos
-- some of them are very interesting, and some of them are actually not
photos at all! Surprise! Non-photo photos. What better way to hide the
detail in a photo than to turn the photo into a non-photo photo! See how
easy space science can be? Stay tuned.... And send me any interesting Mars
photo URLs you run across, including any and all Malin Mars "non-photo
photos" you may encounter. If you find something good, I'll put it
up here!!
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