Starship Asterisk*

http://www.universetoday.com/74217/oppys-new-meteorite-find-in-3-d/#more-74217 wrote:
Oppy’s New Meteorite Find (in 3-D!)
Posted in: Mars, Meteorites by Nancy Atkinson

<<The Opportunity rover has done it again — found another strange-looking rock sitting on Meridiani Planum, and it looks like another meteorite. “The dark color, rounded texture and the way it is perched on the surface all make it look like an iron meteorite,” said Matt Golombek from the MER science team. Unofficially named “Oileán Ruaidh” (pronounced ay-lan ruah), which is the Gaelic name (translated: Red Island) for an island off the coast of northwestern Ireland. The rock is about the size of a toaster: 45 centimeters (18 inches) wide from the angle at which it was first seen. Stu Atkinson has posted some enhanced images of the rock on his website, Road to Endeavour, which I have nabbed and posted here. Thanks Stu! The 3-D version above looks awesome with the red/green glasses. And look for more detailed images of the rock on his site soon, as Opportunity comes in for a closer look.>>

JohnD wrote:
This is intriguing, but for the wrong reasons.

Oileán Ruaidh, or Island Roy or Red Island in English, is an island in Mulroy Bay, a sealoch in Donegal, Northern Ireland.
http://www.donegaldirect.com/ws_busines ... Island+Roy
NASA names rocks of interest on Mars after terrestrial islands, so no anomaly there.

But it was in May this year that Oileán Ruaidh
was selected by "The league of Imaginary Scientists"
as a site to be twinned with "an island outcrop on Mars"!
http://www.calbo.dk/htm/the_ireland_project.htm

In some way, the "Scientists" feel that this is part of the fight against global warming, and they went to local schools to speak to the children about this. I really, really hope that the Irish kids didn't go home thinking that anyone connected with science and climate change dresses up in funny hats to do so.
http://www.imaginaryscience.org/experiments.html

JohnD wrote:
Anyway. Did the Mars Rover crew pick up on this farrago and decide to call the "Imagainary Scientists" bluff by giving them an island on Mars?

http://www.calbo.dk/htm/the_ireland_project.htm wrote:
<<My friend Lucy from The league of Imaginary Scientists based in Los Angeles, California, USA wrote me an e-mail if I wanted to be part of a project in Ireland. A place on Mars, the red planet, was going to be named after a place in Ireland and we were going to be part of this.>>