Alien world
So what is it we are looking at in the image above? I have reduced the resolution slightly to fit it here, but you can see the full resolution image by clicking on the picture.
Is it a marble or granite kitchen counter? Nah, the surface is too rough.
Maybe it’s a modern abstract painting that we can find hanging in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Nah, it has too much style and depth. Abstract art is much more shallow and empty of content.
Could it be a close-up of a just-opened container of berry-vanilla ice cream, the different flavors swirling and intertwined to enhance the eating experience? No, somehow it looks too gritty for ice cream.
No, what we are looking at is close-up of exposed bedrock in an area on Mars called Meridiani Planum. From the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter website:
The Opportunity rover has spent 13 years exploring a small region of Meridiani Planum which has a rather ordinary appearance.
Other portions of Meridiani are much more interesting, with well-exposed layered bedrock eroded into strange patterns.
Meridanii Planum is located on the equator due east of the giant canyons of Valles Marineris. It is a subsection region inside Arabia Terra, the largest of the transition zones between the lower elevation vast plains of the northern hemisphere and the higher elevation crater southern highlands.
The black cross in the image to the right shows where this picture was taken relative to the area that Opportunity has been exploring. Unfortunately, I do not have a scale for the image, but the difference in longitude between the image above and the area of Opportunity’s travels is about 10 degrees, at the equator. I searched the web but was unable to find a quick way to convert this to miles. Hopefully some of my very educated readers can figure it out.
They picked Opportunity’s landing site for its relatively flat terrain to ease the rover’s travels. Yet, in that same region is weird and very inexplicable geology as shown above.
Mars is a big place. It is also an alien place. Figuring out its geology will take several lifetimes of geologists, living on the planet.
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Abstract art is much more shallow and empty of content.
There is a show on National Geographic called “Genius” which covers the life of a genius each season. The first season covered Einstein. The current season covers Picasso. I just do not get why Picasso is considered a genius.
Hat tip to the Creator …
… but I still say it looks like a lab experiment left unattended too long …
It looks like something I washed down the disposal after being in the frig WAAAAY too long.
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Thirteen years of operation from a Rover designed for a 90 day mission?
Well done, JPL, well done.
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You did ask, so here goes…
Al Gore’s Amazing Internet reports that the diameter of Mars is 6792 km, or 4220 miles at the equator
4220 * 3.14159 = 13258 miles circumference
13258 * 10/360 = 368 miles in 10 degrees longitude at the equator
Andi: Thank you. That’s a decent estimate for this one circumstance, and is helpful.
@ Jim Davis, Picasso was a genuine artistic genius…. if you google his early work you will see the “regular” art of a true master….. it was only after proving his chops in the art world he moved on to develop cubism… which like it or hate it, changed the art landscape for ever…. the guy genuinely looked outside the box…