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Smooth feature on Mars
Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:16 pm
by kogelmans
More questions:
About 40km north of Mawrth Vallis, this smooth feature is lying on the Martian floor. The feature is about 40m in length, it's a bit curved and has a clearly visible shadow to the right.
Anyone know what it might be? Is it really a thing lying at the floor or just an optical illusion?
Daan --
Mars Weirdness
Re: Smooth feature on Mars
Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:25 pm
by Beyond
With a magnifying glass it looks like the side of a wall to me. But that may just be an illusion also.
Re: Smooth feature on Mars
Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:38 pm
by geckzilla
Another picture cropped too close for context. It looks more like an indentation to me than a raised object to me but it would help to have a light direction which would be easily deciphered from a run of the mill crater or mountain if there happened to be one nearby.
Re: Smooth feature on Mars
Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:48 pm
by Chris Peterson
kogelmans wrote:More questions:
About 40km north of Mawrth Vallis, this smooth feature is lying on the Martian floor. The feature is about 40m in length, it's a bit curved and has a clearly visible shadow to the right.
Anyone know what it might be? Is it really a thing lying at the floor or just an optical illusion?
It looks like a slumped hillside to me. Hard to tell without additional views, and other light angles.
BTW, if you use the IMG2 tag instead of the IMG tag, clicking the image will allow viewers to see it at its full size, which is easier than following the link back to the original site and viewing it there.
Re: Smooth feature on Mars
Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:49 pm
by kogelmans
Yes I can: here's the feature from a wider perspective:
And here's the picture's
observation page which should contain all the information.
Re: Smooth feature on Mars
Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 5:21 pm
by kogelmans
I've been looking at it more closely and I think it's just some kind of rock-formation or sand dune now. Although the illusion is quite impressive
Re: Smooth feature on Mars
Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 5:55 pm
by Beyond
kogelmans wrote:I've been looking at it more closely and I think it's just some kind of rock-formation or sand dune now. Although the illusion is quite impressive
Yes the illusion actually seems to be better than the "face" of mars. I just looked at the first picture again before i noticed the second picture was up and dang-nab-it if it doesn't look kinda like a really big mummy
However after seeing the second picture, it would seem as though a "chunk" of the gullied hills to the right has broken off and rolled down to where it is.
Or, it could be one those "laden" robins we have heard about has dropped it off there
Any way, we may never know in our lifetime
