Lychen analogue

Now This:

Looks like lychen to me...
Of course it probably isnt anything of the sort, but to the casual observer it seems to have the essence of biologicalness about it.

The brains ability to spot the biological in an image should not be underestimated; we have spent millions of years honing our ability (creatures capable of distinguishing biological features our better able to find food...).
What do you think of the image?

I know what NASA will say - just another rock that hatches blueberries.. it will be kind of their missing link..

Speaking of NASA, I'd like to know why they drove right by these 'puddles' without checking them out. Don't worry, 'puddles' is just my rorschach name for them.

and

but if they splash driving thru them - then what!?

After that and other bounce pictures Mark, it definitely looks like this thing is covered with the stuff.

The rat pictures shows loosely compressed, irregular shaped sediments - kind of like debris that settles in earth lake beds..

on earth this is would be easy-- on mars we'll need more data.

So NASA how about a long session with the APXS (alpha mode) on this thing? Sure would be nice to check this thing for carbon content!

I timidly ask if anyone has looked closely at the composite picture just posted by scidude? I've noticed several dark elongated cone shapes of varying sizes but that seem nearly identically shaped. Could they be some kind of carbonaceous crystals?

The first picture posted by Mark in this thread is actually closer (magnified) version of the composite picture posted by scidude. To reference,this is the interior surface of the grind on Bounce rock. Lower left center of this pic displayes another cross-section of a "Rotinni'. But this time, the Rotinni is bigger or the camera is closer.

Here is a picture of the original rotinni. As you can see, the burrow runs upwards in the 1 o'clock position while the second rotini burrow runs left at almost 9 o'clock angle.

Mario - the rat pictures were just posted and I just put the two pics together myself. Mark's picture is NOT of the rat hole - it was taken on bounce pre-rat.

scidude, check the very bottom corners of Mark's pic and I think you'll see the rounded edge of the grind.

Wow, that certainly does look like mold or lychen (depending on angle).

Good Stuff

Mario - the picture Mark posted was taken the day before the grind. The lychen type material is on the outside of the rock. The grind shows the sedement making up the inside. The magnification of the microscope is actually fixed - about 10x i think. Not great for many of the things that would be nice to examine 'up close'.

scidude, my newbyness may be showing. This is the address of 'my' pic:

I think this is the pic that shows the rounded lip of the ratting inthe two lower corners of the pic.

Also, how do you get the thumbnail into the post? If I right click, my IE 'paste' command is grayed out. Thanks for help.

scidude, nevermind, I think I figured it out.

Mario - you were right - it is part of the mosaic. I updated the composite with all currently availabe pics. sorry i've been looking at too many bounce pictures of late.

It's a little difficult to find the chat threads about the Bounce rock, but yes I agree it appears to have some sort of fossil forms embedded throughout.

The entire landscape has fossils embedded it it. The rovers are swimming in fossils. See my thread for update from unbiased scientific sources. Forget about my opinion, let's see what some experts think. [Link]