Opportunity digs a hole for itself...

[blobrana]

Opportunity has dug a trench in the Red Planet's soil to investigate beneath the Martian surface.

 The soil on the upper walls of the trench seems to be "cloddy" ...
But check whats at the bottom of the trench.!

Click here for 109kb image:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040217a/10-rb-2-spin-B024R1_br2.jpg

Scientists were at a loss to explain the brightness of the soil at the bottom of the trench.

Salts? evaporating?
LIfe?

[blobrana]

@KennyR
Hum,
Yea, i caught that object myself...

A bit of the soil kicked up by the air-bags i would logically assume,
But it could be weathering of differing density rock, poking up through the surface...

I don't think it`s silica, as there is no `sand` or conventional silica. it seems as if all the dust come from Basaltic weathering, and haematite ores...



Strange to have two prongs  on it though. like a seed or skull  :-)



Anyone got a link to the picture?

[quake bot]

[blobrana]

Hum, tnx...

I came across this though while trawling...
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/019/1M129869847EFF0338P2953M2M1.JPG
Hum, strange filaments structure like a hair near the spheroid on the top right...


And this link
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/n/033/2N129300816EFF0327P1730L0M1.HTML
Check the `dot` in the sky...


And this...

[blobrana]

@FluffyMcDeath
Hum,
Be serious!
The spheroids are only a 2-3 millimetres across... that would make the cat hair theory implausible (as they are too thick)
The filaments are only fractions of the width of a (human) hair...

As for the mirage, hum, a plausible explanation, given the weird atmospheric conditions there (several degree temp changes in a few seconds...)





[sry, splitting hairs]

[blobrana]

Hum,
i posed this `cat-hair hypothesis` question to NASA,
They seem to think that it is a fabric thread from the landing balloons, (er, after all, it couldn't have come from anywhere else...).
However they don`t know what it is...

And it looks like the trenches seem to have turned up salty brine...

At the very cold temperatures it seems that a small amount of salty water can exist...and if there is water then there is a possibility of life.

It seems to me we can`t dismiss it as a possible life form ,or product...


[just a thought]