Spidery black objects on Mars surface raise speculation [Was David Bowie right?]

yahoo ^ | October 4, 2012 | Eric Pfeiffer

[Ingtar]

It is spotted; you can spot it in the photo.

[TigersEye]

Looks like someone in a burqa.

[GonzoGOP]

"Bugs, sir.. Millions of them..." ..

[JimSEA]

I suppose it is perspective, but those are odd looking for dunes. Sandblasted rock isn’t really just right either when you consider the scale from 200 miles up. I’d love to see some close ups. The black areas don’t really look like shadow from CO2 geysers.

[3Fingas]

More spice worms, of course! :-D

I don’t have a stillsuit, but considering the lack of rain around these parts that might be a useful thing to have.

[PIF]

FWIW: They found one in 2004 - Mars Opportunity Spirit found what looked like a Crinoid (1M1312). The genius NASA team headed by Steven Squyres then used the grinder to grind off the offending formation to see further into the rock surface on Stone Mountain - they also found what looked like Blastoids.

[pepperdog]

Dune...and the worms!

[dr_lew]

These two images are excerpted from the same HiRise product, which I found on page 56 of 62 for the "science theme" of "Aeolian processes". In the large image below, excerpted from the original product at full resolution as indicated by the white rectangle, you can see smaller scale ripples on its surface. From the product information, I think the ripples are a meter or two across, and the excerpted scene is 250 meters wide.

[Revolting cat!]

[Was David Bowie right?]

David Bowie was always right: Let's Dance!

[Mike Darancette]

Someone has to go there and look.

[onemiddleamerican]

And if you look on the left side of that pic, in the 3rd “stitch” from the left edge of the panorama, you can see a Yeti peeping its head up from a ridge. Amazing the looks of some of these rocks. Pretty desolate place, but very cool to look at it close-up.

[cripplecreek]

Just reading the other day that there have been some unexpectedly high temperatures recorded on Mars lately. (As much as 43 degrees F)

http://www.space.com/17828-mars-weather-curiosity-rover-discovery.html

[grundle]

Thanks. Dunes blown by the wind seems quite plausible.

[grundle]

Thanks for the explanation and picture!

[dangus]

The Shadows (Babylon 5)

[Charles Henrickson]

[UCANSEE2]

You are both absolutely welcome.

[UCANSEE2]

Let's play a game. What are these pictures of, and where are they from ?

[UCANSEE2]

One more good one.

[grundle]

I guess some are from an electron microscope, some from an optical microscope, some from satellite cameras orbiting earth, and one from the New Mexico desert.