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"Life on Mars" found?
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:51 pm
by Chacor
An image of a mysterious shape on the surface of Mars, taken by Nasa spacecraft Spirit, has reignited the debate about life on the Red Planet.
A magnified version of the picture, posted on the internet, appears to some to show what resembles a human form among a crop of rocks.
While some bloggers have dismissed the image as a trick of light, others say it is evidence of an alien presence.
The image is a recent Nasa posting of the Spirit's landing in 2004.
When the robotic rover set down on 24 January 2004, its images disappointed space-watchers hoping for signs of extraterrestrial life.
Now they appear convinced that this image provides the evidence they have been trawling Nasa's photo files for.
The blown-up image seems to resemble a figure striding among the Martian rocks.
The internet has been abuzz with postings offering theories.
One said it was a garden gnome, another that it was the Virgin Mary.
A third suggested Bigfoot, the hairy bipedal mountain beast that appears in various guises in a number of legends around the world.
But the consensus seemed to be that it bore a striking resemblance to the Little Mermaid statue in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
Poster "Madurobob" said it was a statue "obviously built by an ancient civilisation that later departed Mars and settled Denmark".
Badastronomy.com tried to apply some perspective: "A man? It's a tiny rock only a few inches high. It's only a few feet from the rover!"
Little Mermaid in Copenhagen:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7205004.stm
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:00 pm
by JonathanBelles
Call me blind, but I dont see anything.
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:01 pm
by Chacor
That's the zoomed-in version.
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:09 pm
by JonathanBelles
that thing! hmmmm.... I dont know what it could be.
Re: "Life on Mars" found?
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:27 pm
by lurkey
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:32 pm
by Squarethecircle
Calm down, it's just some guy in an ape suit, like that bigfoot video.
Seriously, it looks a heck of a lot like a rock to me. It might be a stretch, I know, but the resemblance is striking.
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:41 pm
by Cyclone1
That's craaazy!
Who knows? It's probably not a life form, nor was it probably created by one. Still, that's something.
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:42 pm
by southerngale
Just hanging out on a rock on a warm summer day, all alone on Planet Me.
I don't know what it is, but probably just rock. I didn't even notice it as what they were talking about when just looking at the pic the first time. I skimmed over the whole pic and saw it all as a bunch of rocks. It looked a little more unusual once it was pointed out, but it still looks more like rock than anything else. JMO.
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:59 pm
by brunota2003
I guess we are gonna guess that the one on the far right side, at about the height of the "head" on the original, is a brick that once belonged to this "creature's" house, right?
Seriously, it is just a rock outcropping with the sunlight shining on it, creating shadows that look like a humanoid.
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:08 pm
by HURAKAN
To me it looks like a piece of rock that has suffered erosion, nothing more. Yes, it has an ape-like form, but nothing more. Another of those things like the face.
Remember that the human mind usually work by assimilating things. When we look at something and we don't know what it is, the mind will always try to assimilate it to something that we already know.
Re: "Life on Mars" found?
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:34 pm
by Opal storm
Even though that's probably a rock, you have to admit that looks really creepy.
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:43 am
by Cryomaniac
Probably just rock, but cool non-the-less.
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 8:16 pm
by Tstormwatcher
I would like to see a second shot taken the next day at the very same place. It does look like a rock though.
Re:
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:10 pm
by HURAKAN
Tstormwatcher wrote:I would like to see a second shot taken the next day at the very same place.
That would have been excellent.
Re: "Life on Mars" found?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:33 am
by HurricaneBill
It's Jimmy Hoffa!
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:25 am
by Terrell
Count me in as someone who thinks it's just a rock.
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:16 am
by Andrew92
I've done some thinking on this, and I've decided:
Show me some bones, muscles, or blood vessels and then I'll be convinced it's life! Til then it's just another rock on a foreign rock.
BTW, when did the Red Planet start turning green?
-Andrew92
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 6:51 am
by HURAKAN
If there was life of that scale in Mars, we would have already seen it after more than 30 years of studing the planet.
Re:
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:07 am
by Coredesat
Andrew92 wrote:I've done some thinking on this, and I've decided:
Show me some bones, muscles, or blood vessels and then I'll be convinced it's life! Til then it's just another rock on a foreign rock.
BTW, when did the Red Planet start turning green?
-Andrew92
That's the actual surface of Mars, under the signature red dust. The planet appears red due to this dust, which is mostly composed of ferric oxide - rust.
Re: Re:
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:25 am
by HURAKAN
Coredesat wrote:Andrew92 wrote:I've done some thinking on this, and I've decided:
Show me some bones, muscles, or blood vessels and then I'll be convinced it's life! Til then it's just another rock on a foreign rock.
BTW, when did the Red Planet start turning green?
-Andrew92
That's the actual surface of Mars, under the signature red dust. The planet appears red due to this dust, which is mostly composed of ferric oxide - rust.
Another question: Is the picture in true color or false color?
