I'm sure the regulars here can decipher this one:

Strange object found on Mars.
December 22, 2007, Thu 1:28 PM Science
"Alexander Novgorodov, the reader of the portal R&D.CNews from Moscow
Region, has pointed to an object of unusual morphology found on Mars
images made by the spacecraft Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter."
http://eng.cnews.ru/news/line/indexE...7/11/22/276238

See in particular the 2nd and 3rd images in the sequence.
I wonder if this is a joke. The date is wrong while all the other news items on this site have the right date. Also, there is no link to or indication of which Hirise image this comes from.


Bob Clark

1. A small, wind eroded mesa. The door, a trick of light and shadow.

2. The fossilized tusk of one of Carl Sagan's "mile wide elephants."

3. Noah's Arc, and that's the door were all the animals disembarked.

Now apply Occam's Razor and see which is the most likely explanation.

__________________
I'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet.
http://www.rrac.org

With a flat top and a tear drop shape it could be water erosion. of course without an idea of context we don't know.

the pyramid could be due to wind erosion, like some of the other "pyramids" on Mars. Like dreikanter but on a much larger scale. See http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/EarthSC20...s/windslid.htm (2nd and 3rd photos from top).

Jon

Love the airfoil shape of the tower.

The winds there must blow regularly from ONE direction...

Oh joy - Hoagland's outsourcing to Russia.

You'll get the same response here that you got elsewhere RGC - quit obviously the same sort of feature as one would see at Monument valley. As for the dark 'doors' - I could point to a dozen of them at Victoria crater...they vanish then the light moves.

Doug

I don't know but they need a better editor, reading that was slightly painful.

Oh, and the photos remind me of an edible volcano my mother and I made when I was in elementary school. The color, the texture, everything looks just like my yummy volcano.

__________________
-The Wolf
http://www.ryanmercer.com

No more than interesting natural phenomenom.

A door? I see no door. I see rocks and boulders.

You need to be wearing a pair of these RCH Brand Mars JPEG Examination Glasses™. Then all those invisible details will jump out at you from behind the rocks.

__________________
A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

My 3d goggles not good enough eh??!! :-)

I actually don't see anything in those.

__________________
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song

Kind of on-topic:

Poor old Arthur C Clarke's Banyon trees have turned out to be formed by carbon dioxide emissions.

Just goes to show anyone is fallible :-)

Trees are humdrum compared to the actual explanation!

I can't really tell if the mesa was wind- or water-eroded. Wind would be the natural choice given what we know about Mars as it is now, but the unusual teardrop shape suggests erosion by running water. More proof of water on Mars in the past?

The "door" in some of the photos looks Photoshopped, however.

- Maha Vailo

__________________
When you get down to it, Science answers how. Religion answers why. - hippietrekx

There are a lot of teardrop shaped mesas in outflow channels on Mars. Definitely not rare.

__________________
"I'm as accurate as any psychic. And I'm a cartoon!" -- Squidward

"Arrrgh, the laws of physics be a harsh mistress!" -- Bender

Its disgraceful isn't it? Hardworking American crackpots losing their jobs overseas.

__________________
"I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive." - Carl Sagan, 1995

That's what I was thinking too, which led me to wonder if it was a joke.

Bob Clark

I think that object is just like a "mountain without peak", it seem to be. Or a big cutted stone on the top, and that stone may be so big as any mountain. if not then imagine the movie shot in James bond where the single big mountain shown in the sea in the middle portion, was not an island, but that too was quite resembling with this image in the very first link by Rgclark.

"Strange object found on Mars."

Okay, who left their strange object on Mars? Anybody...? Anybody...?

__________________
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

NASA still hasn't visually verified the crash sites of all its probes, maybe one of them has been up to no-good. Perhaps one of them crashed into the side of this strange looking formation and created a perfectly shaped door. It's just as likely as sentient beings living on mars.

I thought the source of the image might have been from Hirise images of Chandor Chasma, but it has been identified as being in Arabia Terra. It's location was identified on the Cydonia Yahoo group, http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cydonia/:

http://hirise-pds.lpl.arizona.edu/PD...ED.abrowse.jpg

It's about 1/4 of the way down and half way over from the left.

It's turned upside down from the orientation of the Russian image in this image.

It comes from here:

Crater in Western Arabia Terra with Stair-Stepped Hills and Dark Dunes (PSP_002047_1890)
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_002047_1890

On that Cydonia group, the "door" is described as only a shadow.


Bob Clark



************************************************** ***********************
This recent release showing perspective views of Candor has links to Hirise images taken back in April:

Hilltop' View of the Terrain in Candor Chasma.
12.11.07
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MR...ion121107.html

The two Hirise images from April:

Interior of Western Candor Chasma (PSP_003474_1735)
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_003474_1735

Faults and Folds in Western Candor Chasma (PSP_003540_1735)
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_003540_1735

Note they show streamlined mesas as in the Russian images and also were given a bluish color as in the Russian images.


Bob Clark
************************************************** **********

Roughly 800 km north of Opportunity's site then. No channels in this region, so a yardang in most likely.

Jon