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Rover Cracks Mystery Of Mars Spheres

Posted by timothy on from the blueberries-my-foot dept.

Ant writes "CNN has a story about scientists having learned the composition of the mysterious sphere-shaped objects scattered across the crater floor at Meridiani Planum, the landing site of the Opportunity Mars rover."

25 comments

  1. hematite huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    so this conclusively prooves the existance of hemogloben on mars...i think mars is just one giant red blood cell

    1. Re:hematite huh? by ozbird · · Score: 1

      Kind of. Hematite is a dark grey rock with a metallic sheen, and feels surprisingly heavy. It gets its name (literally "blood stone") from the blood red colour it produces when scratched/ground. Fine-grained hematite that takes a fine polish is often used for jewelery.

  2. For those who didn't RTFA... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    they are indeed martian rabbit turds.

    1. Re:For those who didn't RTFA... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, they are Beagle droppings

    2. Re:For those who didn't RTFA... by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      No, it is KIX cereal

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    3. Re:For those who didn't RTFA... by wokithub · · Score: 1

      Who mods this shite funny?

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      -=|wokithub|=-
    4. Re:For those who didn't RTFA... by Egekrusher2K · · Score: 1

      Blatant Teal'c reference satisfied. :)

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      Listen to my experimental-industrial-techno!
  3. No, No, No... by Trikenstein · · Score: 4, Funny

    Everyone knows that they're SandKing eggs!

  4. I thought what they meant... by Toxygen · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ...was "homogoblins". I hate those little bastards. Never turn your back on them.

  5. Check out this March 2001 page by Richard+Allen · · Score: 1

    on Nasa's site.

    Looks like they were ahead of the times.

    http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast28mar_1 .htm

    1. Re:Check out this March 2001 page by snake_dad · · Score: 1

      Not really ahead of the times.. NASA knew that there was gray Hematite in Meridiani Planum (as your link shows), it was one of the most important reasons for choosing to land Opportunity there. The interesting thing is that we now know what on the surface is the hematite, and that the hematite was formed in abundant liquid water and not by other processes. Just fyi :)

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  6. link - sorry by Richard+Allen · · Score: 3, Informative

    nasa

  7. Why does it have to be water? by tjmsquared · · Score: 2, Interesting

    NASA seems to be asserting that because they are spheres they must have formed in water. Any geologist know why they could not be volcanic and still be spherical?

    1. Re:Why does it have to be water? by DoraLives · · Score: 4, Informative

      Start here if you'd like. Short and sweet, and comes with a nice pretty picture. Dig for more if you'd like, it's out there and it's not even hiding. Them little boogers isn't volcanic. And oh yeah, NASA is NOT "asserting that because they are spheres they must have formed in water." Not at all. Not sure where you got that from, but you might as well go ahead and put it back, 'cause it's wrong.

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      Is it fascism yet?
    2. Re:Why does it have to be water? by cmjensen · · Score: 4, Informative
      Any geologist know why they could not be volcanic and still be spherical?
      I'm not a geologist, but I've read the press release that explained this.

      The spheres appear uniformly through the strata laid down. Volcanic or meteor sources would be more likely to appear in layers of spheres -- one layer of spheres per erruption or meteor impact.

      Secondly, in this picture here, you can see that some of the spheres have merged as they met. If it was volcanic, they would have melted together (and flowed together) rather than merely intersecting. To a geologist, the shape of the merged spheres has "molecular compound formed on-site" written all over it.

  8. Really amazing stuff by Pottsynz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'd like to give major kudos to the people behind the rovers, it really is amazing we have a couple of robots buzzing around another planet actively doing science. We're unlocking the mysteries of a world thats not our own, thats pretty damn cool.

    1. Re:Really amazing stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      Where is the +1, Sycophant Karma Whore moderation when you need it?

  9. I smell a geek... by irokitt · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Now all we have to do is figure out what made the rocks in the first place and how long the water may have been involved in the 'soakings.' What a fun time!"

    I detect no true signs of social life...

    Kudos to the rover guys, NASA has failed to produse Martian news like this since before I was born.

    --
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    1. Re:I smell a geek... by Eccles · · Score: 1

      "...it's sorta social. Demented and sad, but social. Right?" --The Breakfast Club

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      Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
  10. This just in... by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

    The odd spherical shapes have been determined to be golf balls. You heard correctly golf balls hit from the lunar surface from on of the Appolo missions.

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    I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
  11. Seriously by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

    The article said they were made of Iron ore and hematite. There is a form of hematite that is composed primarily of sedimentary rock. This has most likely led to the water on Mars speculaition.

    --
    I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!