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Mars Opportunity Photos
Photo Source: NASA

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The last article I wrote had to do with the Mars Spirit explorer. This time we will take a look at the photographs from the Mars Opportunity explorer.

Scientific Instruments aboard Spirit and Opportunity:

Panoramic Camera (Pancam): for determining the mineralogy, texture, and structure of the local terrain.
Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES): for identifying promising rocks and soils for closer examination and for determining the processes that formed Martian rocks. The instrument will also look skyward to provide temperature profiles of the Martian atmosphere.
Mössbauer Spectrometer (MB): for close-up investigations of the mineralogy of iron-bearing rocks and soils.
Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS): for close-up analysis of the abundances of elements that make up rocks and soils.
Magnets: for collecting magnetic dust particles. The Mössbauer Spectrometer and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer will analyze the particles collected and help determine the ratio of magnetic particles to non-magnetic particles. They will also analyze the composition of magnetic minerals in airborne dust and rocks that have been ground by the Rock Abrasion Tool.
Microscopic Imager (MI): for obtaining close-up, high-resolution images of rocks and soils.
Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT): for removing dusty and weathered rock surfaces and exposing fresh material for examination by instruments onboard.

Please note this is not a rehash of the mission but an examination of some of the photos that were taken by this vehicle.

Left: Opportunity Landing site.
Center and Right: Mars topography

Left: Notice the flat areas, are they rocks or sand or is there just no rocks in that area?
Center: The rocky areas in this photo are much different than the flat ones in the preceding photo.
Right: This rocky area reminds ruins of ancient roads

Left: Unknown object in photo.
Right: Object casts a shadow.

This has to be the weirdest photo of all the Opportunity photos. It looks almost like a rabbit. Notice the ears and most of all, notice the shadow under the right ear and body. I say body but who knows what it is? It certainly looks like animal life but I guess it could turn out to be some sort of lens flare except for that shadow. I sure wish I knew more about this.

Above is the thing enlarged about as much as I can get and still keep it recognizable. It is somewhat pixilated. Ok, I was trying to avoid this, but did we discover life on Mars and is it being kept a secret and was this photo left on the Maestro NASA site by mistake?

Left: Rover traveling across Mars.
Center: Some of the rocks here are perfectly round which is quite unusual.
Right: More rocks?

While the center photo shows some rocks that are so perfectly round or maybe even disk shaped which is unusual, the photo on the right looks almost like a ruin or maybe even a road. Notice how flat the stone are that are part of it. It looks like something the Romans might have made.

Left: Rover heads out from lander.
Center: These rocks look more like bowling balls than rocks, notice how round they are.
Right: Rock outcropping

I found the photo on the above right very interesting and have enlarged selected segments of it, see what you think.

As I said these clips came from the rock outcropping photo above. I know that most of you will say my imagination is getting carried away. I only cut these from the original photo because I thought that they were interesting, not to infer anything.

Left: Very strange rock structure.
Center: Same location again but showing more of area to left
Right: Look at the strange blobs in this photo.

I have to say that if I had a stone slab and went to look at it a hundred thousand years or later, it might look like the the photo above left, and what is that near center left of the photograph, is it a hole through a rock? It could almost be a manhole, but it could also just be some dark material. Lets really stretch our imagination, could this area have been some sort of ancient street? What is up with those globule things in the photo on the right? Was this part of an experiment by the rover or are they natural and if so, what could have caused them?

Clipped from the above center photo and enlarged this photo was adjusted for contrast.

Notice how there seem to be ridges around the 'manhole' in the above photo. This certainly is another strange feature of this area. Could a cover of some type have fitted over this hole, and where does it lead, if it is a hole?

Mars is certainly a very interesting place and even the photos from NASA are interesting. They just seem to make you wish for more. They also leave a lot of open questions.

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