Phoenix on Mars

I have modified the picture myself, hmmm

http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screwwl7.png

folks>>>

Even though I can't post the image for I've no web site, I popped it into PSP and looked at it with their image editing stuff and the best I came up with is 'CRINOID', you know the circular ring types. This one about 2" long as Horton pointed out.

It can't be a metal screw because the thread-like ribbing are not angled as an Earth screw is!!!

Another point is that this thing and all underneath has been exposed due to the thruster blast to land Phoenix, do you agree?

Wonder what is underneath the soil at that 'screw' location?

That hole in the rock more than likely came from that hard berry below the rock and to the right in the image. And the hole in the rock has gone through normal Martian erosion to make it bigger. See Horton's right-side pic, its a much clearer image.

That '10 cm biconical rock' at 6 o'clock [bottom-center] could be a warn out shell that was below the surface before blast. This area of Mars is supposed to be frozen!!!Freeze-thaw action is all this place has probably ever seen in hundreds of millions of years until excavated and exposed a few days ago.

yt
dx

Hold on, there cannot be any liquid water on mars due to the low pressure, perhaps the sample medium can also be pressurized?

are you talking about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crinoid ?

reply 23 is in the wrong thread, ignore it

Under Phoenix ( reprocessed ):

This is a revisit under the lander.

The images were processed with a square root brightness adjustment followed by a contrast change followed by a rotation followed by a 2x scaling.

The bright, holey rock under the lander may be ice -- according to Mission Scientist Dr. Ray Arvidson during the Press conference today!

Yes, dx, it looks like the round rock might have "popped out" of the hole in the rock and "bounced" twice! Very strange.

I wonder if the exhaust from the rockets was hot enough to boil ice trapped beheath the rock and then the trapped hot water vapor popped the rock out like a cannon?!

Followup RAC images are scheduled for tosol of the sane area. IF it's ice, then there may be changes in the "rock".

Mo mention was made of the "screw" or conical rock.

These images were created with the 8 bit lossy JPG which is mostly "clipped" in the dark shadow -- so maybe the NASA guys already know it's "just rocks".

I will opst the new images as soon as they are available.

From a 15 kB lossy JPG image I think this is the best we can get, thanks to Horton. As I mentioned earlier, if this screw-feature isn't from the lander, then, JPL; The MECA cam should be the next move to closer examine this feature?

Er, the Robotic Arm Camera ( RAC ) imaged the lander underside.

RAC can focus to within 11 mm, so it can do a "life size" ( 1:1 ) images. It is also equipped with its own Red,Green,Blue LEDS so it can illuminate the images it is photographing in color. Couple that with a 3D offset, panorama sequences and we are talking some pretty neat images.

Think of it as

ooops.

clicked before I finishe my thought...

Think of it ( RAC ) as an MI camera on steroids.

Okey-doke, I have to read my lessons better...

Horton>>>

Quote, "yes, dx, it looks like the round rock might have "popped out" of the hole in the rock and "bounced" twice! Very strange.

I wonder if the exhaust from the rockets was hot enough to boil ice trapped beneath the rock and then the trapped hot water vapor popped the rock out like a cannon?," unquote.

Just look at that burn mark to the right of the hole on that rock...! It had to burn there because its a depression in the rock and therefore it excited the burn flame more intensely to, as Horton says.."popped the rock'. Makes perfect sense to me.

I think this is very likely what happened.
Wonderful observation indeed.

WHERE IS HENRY? WE NEED HIM IN HERE.

yt
dx

max>>>

Yes to your 24 above. What else can it be? I for one am tired of all this damned speculation and NASA is doing nothing to circumvent differences or otherwise resolve AN or ANY issue one way or the other.

Just what is a neophyte scientist to go on? To sit twiddling his thumbs or whittling a crinoid waiting for no explanation?

GGGEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZ, give me 'F' break in here.

We all might as well read the papers! To hell with the net.

The net is suppose to be an OPEN minded entity with all resolutions at hand. Just more BS to me the longer I stay on it.

Getting as bad as TV.

yt
dx

Intersting features on stereo

es

I was watching the news conference today when Arvidson showed the picture of the area under the lander. The spiral object(crinoid?) was clearly visible. Naturally there was no mention of it since it happened to be the MOST interesting thing that has yet appeared in any photo. They are following the Steve Squyres method. Always totally IGNORE anything unusual or interesting. If asked a direct question concerning an anomalous object...create a diversion by talking about sulphates!!! Then move quickly to the next question.

Sorry, picture mixup.

Intersting features on stereo

Looks like phoenix has jumped on landing

es

yep, they always ignore this type of stuff... or watch them say its a camera artifact.

lets home we get an answer I am with dx on this one.

also when I click the news page I either get the May29th article, or the may 30th completely randomly. The may 30th news page displays the picture of the "crinoid"

It looks like the thing is small heated chip, that stuck on landing into the frozen soil, and melted/evaporated it around itself.

http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix

The picture shows a little piece of hardware on the ground, probably a pin. The team is checking it out. No worries.

Well if it is a piece of lander hardware then I would HOPE the team could identify it!!! So say it is hardware but don't totally ignore it. I had hopes that the Phoenix team would conduct activities differently than the MER boys by actually talking about soil anomalies but I can see that will not be the case. It would appear that the scientific method has evoloved to the point that ONLY observations that suit/support your agenda are investigated. Everything else, no matter how compelling, is ignored.

Remember the early days of the rovers? The famous "rotini" object? When some reporters finally forced Squyres to comment he said(I paraphrase) "if we find a lot more of them we would take a look but if we only find one then we will ignore it". Now isn't that a great response? If every scientist on earth followed that methodology we would have precious few discoveries. If only one example of anything is found, throw it away unless you find hundreds more. I see we are heading down the same path of willfull ignorance. There will be many more unusual objects at the Phoenix site. But unless they are made of ICE, they will not be mentioned.