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Interesting Structures On Mars

Posted by timothy on from the see-what-you-want-to-see dept.

fear writes: "Meta Research has just released a new report on what they call 'Artificial Structures on Mars. Much of it is obvious nonsense ('animal-like shapes,' for example) similar to seeing things in clouds, but some structures look interesting: spots, tubes 1, tubes 2, track, 'vegetation', 'trees', triangles, strange lines, T. Which geological and climatic processes cause the formation of such structures?" Though I see no trees or vegetation, these are still fascinating images of Mars, and Meta Research looks like an interesting, off-beat site to check back to.

4 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I found this site the other day on plastic.com by rde · · Score: 5
    You may think the site is a load of crap, but after examination you might think otherwise. Check you beliefs at the door...you might find something interesting...
    After examination, I still think it's a load of crap. I've had to make this point on other fora recently; it's getting silly.
    Pick up any issue of Fortean Times. Examine its 'simulacra' section. Therein you'll find examples of everyday objects that look like people, things, whatever.

    If it's got a beard, it must be Jesus

    If it's got a quiff, it must be Elvis

    Why is the "okay, so cydonia wasn't really alien. But this is" considered a valid argument for these structures being anything other than natural?

  2. Looks a lot like Earth. by Remus+Shepherd · · Score: 5

    It's my job to look at satellite imagery of the Earth every day. And looking at these Mars pictures, I don't see many structures that I haven't seen in earth geology. The tubes (dunes or ravines), triangles (dunes), and other formations are all things you'd see if you looked in the right places on Earth.

    The only features that did seem a little strange were the 'trees' images. While they could be lava flows, lava is usually not that fractal or inhomogeneous. They do look more like natural vegetation, although without scale on the images it's impossible to tell. So I'd dismiss immediately any claims of intelligent artifacts on Mars, but there may be some tantalizing possibilities for primitive forms of life.

    --
    Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
  3. "New" report? by T-Punkt · · Score: 5

    I can't get through to the site as well ("slashdotted", see other posts), but since I see Cydonia in the URL I doubt to see something really new there.
    Cydonia is the region of the famous "mars face" (which doesn't look like a face anymore on pictures with higher resolutions---thanks to Mars Global Surveyor) and there have been plenty of reports about the mars face and the other "artifical" structures around ("city", "pyramid" and so on.)

    See here for an example:
    http://www.psrw.com/~markc/marshome.html

    Here's a mirror in Germany (if that's slashdotted also :-)

    http://home.t-online.de/home/zimmert/marshpge.ht m

  4. Just a TAD kooky... by Daniel+Rutter · · Score: 5
    Metaresearch.org, eh?

    Administrative contact: Michael Van Flandern

    Technical contact: Kevin Van Flandern

    Mouthpiece for: Tom Van Flandern, big-time Cydonia-face, um, "enthusiast".

    Have yourself a browse through metaresearch.org and you'll find out all sorts of interesting things. Like, apparently the speed of gravity is "not less than 2 x 10^10 c", and therefore probably infinite.

    Feel free to read some stuff on Jerry Pournelle's site about this guy.

    Here's another URL that directly addresses the gravity-speed thing Tom Van Flandern loves so dearly.

    If he were a bit more dedicated, he'd qualify as a real, quality, Usenet kook. I don't think he quite makes the grade, though.