Silica Symphony, Mars White Rock Fingers (APOD 07 Apr 08)

[neufer]

Mysterious White Rock Fingers on Mars
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080407.html
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Unusual Silica Rich Soil Discovered on Mars
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071218.html
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<<You're rolling across Mars when you unexpectedly uncover some unusually light soil. You stop. You turn. You return to inspect the soil and find out it is almost purely silica -- the main ingredient in quartz and glass. Such soil has never been found on Mars before. What created this soil? Since you are the robotic rover Spirit currently rolling across Mars, you send the images and data back to Earth for analysis. Your scientist friends from the blue water planet say that such soil on Earth is usually created by either volcanic steam or a hot spring.>>
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http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/ThePilot.html

DANA: What... What is that on your lip?

GEORGE: What?

DANA: It's like a discoloration. It's white.

GEORGE: (gets up and picks a mirror) Yes. Yes, it's white. Why it's white.

DANA: You'd better get that checked out.

GEORGE: Better get that checked out?

DANA: I would.
..........................................
GEORGE: (to the cab driver) Excuse me, do you see anything on my lip here?

CABBIE: Yeah, it's like a discoloration.

GEORGE: Oh, my God.

CABBIE: Yeah, it's all white.

GEORGE: (to Jerry) It's all white Jerry! It's all white!
..........................................
STU: (to George) Yeah I think I see it. It's like a white discoloration.

GEORGE: (to Jay) What do you think it is?

JAY: It's like a... white discoloration.
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[blanders57]

While looking at the photo of a Mars crater was wondering why some smaller circular areas in the photo appear to be raised as opposed to depressions.
Are these impact sites? If so what process causes them to be raised or appear to be raised?

Thanks

[neufer]

While looking at the photo of a Mars crater was wondering why some smaller circular areas in the photo appear to be raised as opposed to depressions.
Are these impact sites? If so what process causes them to be raised or appear to be raised?

I think the main factor is the very dark sand surrounding these craters. This gives one the impression that any illuminated object must, of necessity, be sticking up above the (supposedly shadowed) ground to catch the suns rays.

[Floyd923]

Is it just me, or does the shape seem to match a mirror image of the Millennium Falcon? What if Han Solo was parked there during a dust storm, then took off after it all settled. I am just saying...Occam's razor...

[neufer]

Is it just me, or does the shape seem to match a mirror image of the Millennium Falcon? What if Han Solo was parked there during a dust storm, then took off after it all settled. I am just saying...Occam's razor...

Maybe he didn't take off at all:
http://www.culttvman.com/assets/images- ... con001.jpg
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001381/
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http://deckplans.00sf.com/Old_Ships/Mil ... or_Old.gif
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Falcon

<<The Millennium Falcon is a fictional spacecraft in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). The highly modified YT-1300 light freighter first appears briefly at the beginning Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in Coruscant and subsequently in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The Falcon also appears in a variety of Star Wars expanded universe materials, including books, comics, and games.

According to Star Wars creator George Lucas, the Falcon's design is inspired by a hamburger, with the cockpit being an olive on the side. The ship originally had a more elongated appearance, but a vessel called the Eagle with a highly similar look in Space: 1999 prompted Lucas to change the Falcon's design. The original model was modified, re-scaled, and used as Princess Leia's ship Tantive IV. The full-scale Millennium Falcon built for The Empire Strikes Back was created in a hangar by Marcon Fabrications in Pembroke Dock, west Wales. It weighed almost 23 tons and used compressed air hover pads for movement around the set. Half of the Falcon was used for Return of the Jedi's ultimately unused sand-scene sequence after the destruction of Jabba's barge. All other views of the Falcon in Return of the Jedi were matte paintings and models. The full-scale Falcon replica was scrapped at about this time.
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Han Solo won the Falcon from fellow rogue Lando Calrissian in a game of sabacc. In A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker charter the ship to deliver them, C-3PO, R2-D2, and the stolen Death Star plans to Alderaan. Skywalker appraises the ship as "a piece of junk", but Solo counters by noting that the ship can "make point-five past lightspeed. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself." The group later conceal themselves in hidden smuggling compartments below the floor after the Falcon is captured by the Death Star. Solo seemingly abandons the Rebels before they attack the Death Star, but his return in the Falcon allows Skywalker to destroy the space station.

Solo flies the Falcon, with Chewbacca, Leia, and C-3PO aboard, to elude the Imperial Starfleet in The Empire Strikes Back. They take refuge at Cloud City, where Darth Vader captures Solo and freezes him in carbonite. Calrissian helps the others escape and, at the film's end, he and Chewbacca set out aboard the Falcon to rescue Solo. Calrissian again flies the Falcon during the climax of Return of the Jedi, leading the Rebels' successful attack on the second Death Star.

The Falcon is often connected to the Kessel Run, a pathway from Kessel past the Maw Black Hole Cluster used by smugglers to transport precious Glitterstim spice. Solo in A New Hope brags that the Falcon made the Kessel Run in "less than twelve parsecs", referring to his ability to move the ship closer to the Maw's black holes and therefore cut the distance traveled. On the A New Hope DVD audio commentary, Lucas comments that, in the Star Wars universe, traveling through hyperspace requires careful navigation to avoid stars, planets, asteroids, and other obstacles. Since no long-distance journey can be made in a straight line, the "fastest" ship is the one that can plot the "most direct course", thereby traveling the least distance.>>
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The Millennium Falcon dangerously near a Ma White Hole on the Keebler Run

[tforde123]

The color photgrapgh shows something that is almost as shiny as Gold or Aluminum Foil and about just as refelective. i'm not sure what the albedo of gold or aluminum foil is?

Whatever this stuff is, it sure makes that Crater stand out in a color photogragh.

The infrared shows up as the fingers being black with the background as being gray or grayish by comparison. That should mean that the fingers are a different material - altogether. I don't see how the fingers can be made up of a "dust" or powder that can be blown around by the "wind" and yet the other background material is of a completely different color (gray) meaning composition. Since the background material is presumed to be sand. The wallls of the crater may be made of rock or something firmer than sand. I think that the walls of the crater are also made of a different substance (perhaps a rock).

I think that the entire area is covered in sand, however, it appears that much of that covering sand has "blown" away in the color photogragh to reveal what lies below - perhaps a bedrock layer of gold or some other shiny metal? In any case, what we are probably looking at is a layer of gold or some other shiny metal that is reflecting back great quantities of sunlight (hence the high albedo).

I have no idea how it (the metal) got there or why we can see it so clearly? It is definitely mysterious and it bears much more investigation.

Perhaps the rovers Opportunity and Spirit could stroll over for some approaching and close up photos.

IF and when we have manned missions to Mars, after exploring the face on Mars and the ruins surrounding the face region, one of my next high priority areas to explore would be this particular crater. I know that there will be many areas to explore, this area is just so striking from the MRO flying overhead, it makes me wonder, what could be so reflective of sunlight that it makes itself stand out on a color photogragh - just like it was gold.

All that we are left is to speculate about this strangely reflective crater and what could possibly be causing it???

[Sputnick]

Could the white stuff be frozen water instead of rock? Water frozen instantly into waves? Like a prehistoric mamoth instantly frozen with buttercups in its mouth?

[Sputnick]

I'd like to butt my mouth against that cookie ship and explore its composition. Great photo. Thanks.

[William Roeder]

Like a prehistoric mamoth instantly frozen with buttercups in its mouth?

It didn't instantly freeze, it fell though a partially frozen lake and drowned. The buttercups weren't in the mouth, they were in the stomach, partially digested. An urban legend.

[Sputnick]

Thanks William - okay - how about the CO2 spray I use in my janirotiral work to freeze chewing gum which is stuck to carpets. The chewing gum is as hard as glass, you smack the frozen chunk with a hammer and lift of the pieces. A jet of liquid CO2 from (somewhere - something) instantly freezing water then.

[inertnet]

It looks a bit like a salt pit to me.

[JohnD]

Anyone read Emily Lakdawalla's article on the Planetary Society's website?
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001347/
With help from experts in infrred spectroscopy, she points out that the White Rock has such a high albedo that it doesn't follow the usual cool-in-the-day, warm-at-night rules for rocks, but does not have a high thermal inertia, indicating a "not very dense" material. I think that rules out Gold!


It has already been the subject of a learned paper, published in the J.Geological Soc.: http://jgs.lyellcollection.org/cgi/cont ... /156/5/869

There the authors describe it as, "a portion of what may be a lacustrine sedimentary sequence ..... re-interpreted as a lens of magnesium carbonate precipitated where ground waters seeped into an ancient evaporating crater lake." They speculate that it might have harboured stromatolites, like the first organised life form on Earth http://www.fossilmall.com/Science/About ... tolite.htm

John
PS Lacustrine - I had to look it up! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacustrine
JOhn

[Sputnick]

Our friend Internet seems to be right on with the salt pit - salt is not dense - Congrats, Internet -- and what looks like waves on the surface could have been made by the movement of the water. Similar markings are seen on sandy bottoms at the beach. Another thought I had after I posted (the preceeding) was that instead of salt it could be those microscopic glassy skeletons of sea creatures people eat hoping to get rid of intestinal parasites .. I can't think of the name of that beautifuly intricate-in-compostion stuff . but it's not dense either, probably less dense than salt.