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This is an image of a boulder which has rolled down a slope. Amazingly, it came to rest with its base in the ground and its pointy-end pointing up. It is 20 feet high!! I can see how this rock rolled down the slope to make this pattern, but its the landing up with the pointy-end up which I cannot fathom. From the image, it does not look like it is 11 feet wide if it is 20 feet hight. If it was, it would be more round then it looks. Rocks just dont jump and at 20 feet it could not have rolled end-over-end. Can anyone explain how this might have happened please?
Calculated from the length of the shadow cast by the rock and the known angle of sunlight during this afternoon exposure, the height of the boulder is about 20 feet (6 meters). Its width as seen from overhead is only about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters), so it indeed has an irregular shape. It came to rest with its long axis pointed up.
Are you trying to attribute this to aliens from another universe?
It has been theorized and recently confirmed that there is seismic activity on Mars. Yes, rocks do jump up 20 feet. Sometimes more. How do you explain the Rocky Mountains? Or the forming of the Cascade Mountains?
The theory is the pacific place rubs up against the North American plate. Plate seduction causing one plate to ride up on the other and earthquakes and land upheaval. The pictures look like a fault line.
That is a best guess answer. A geologist could give a better answer.
a. The pointy end would be unstable if it were balanced on that end; it is more likely to roll over to a flat side.
b. When the Sun is at a low altitude, the shadows it produces tend to be long. In this case much longer than the height of the boulder.
Mars has less gravity and less atmosphere. After an object stops bouncing in low gravity, there is less wind and no rain to erode it away. It could stay like that for millions of years until more seismic activity or a meteorite hits it.
a. The pointy end would be unstable if it were balanced on that end; it is more likely to roll over to a flat side.
b. When the Sun is at a low altitude, the shadows it produces tend to be long. In this case much longer than the height of the boulder.
The human eye is easy to fool.
I agree with your a) point. and b) - it was NASA which said the boulder was 20 feet high based on the shadow and i assume they have done many height based on shadows in their experience of looking at space images. 20 feet is quite a large boulder to suddenly after rolling down the hillside, place itself upright. I just think it is weird and not the way things would normally happen after rolling all that way. The shadow does not look to be anything other than a pointed rock. What we can see of the rock (not the shadow), looks round cylindrical and pointed at the top.
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Mars has less gravity and less atmosphere. After an object stops bouncing in low gravity, there is less wind and no rain to erode it away. It could stay like that for millions of years until more seismic activity or a meteorite hits it.
Yes, I am not suggesting anything about erosion, and a seismic event could well have set it moving/rolling. This was obviously not bouncing down the hill as the tracks clearly show it rolled.
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Are you trying to attribute this to aliens from another universe?
As I understand it, not everything is attributed to aliens. I am trying to understand what we are seeing in this image and since others have now seen it too, I want to ask how they account for the final position of the rock. I assume that science forum types of people are naturally curious. Maybe I'm wrong about that.
We all look at photos and test the reality of it based on our experience of what we have seen before and what we know from our education and common sense.
I agree with your a) point. and b) - it was NASA which said the boulder was 20 feet high based on the shadow and i assume they have done many height based on shadows in their experience of looking at space images. 20 feet is quite a large boulder to suddenly after rolling down the hillside, place itself upright. I just think it is weird and not the way things would normally happen after rolling all that way. The shadow does not look to be anything other than a pointed rock. What we can see of the rock (not the shadow), looks round cylindrical and pointed at the top.
Calculated from the length of the shadow cast by the rock and the known angle of sunlight during this afternoon exposure, the height of the boulder is about 20 feet (6 meters). Its width as seen from overhead is only about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters), so it indeed has an irregular shape. It came to rest with its long axis pointed up.
What amazes me is the sheer acceptance of things which science cannot explain. There is no drive to find out and sometimes there is actually an active effort to stop discussion on it, occasionally even by destroying the evidence found.
On Mars there have been a few instances where anomalous or strange events have not been followed up where the opportunity will never happen again after the rover has moved on.
I agree that there are specific mission objectives, but opportunities for discovery have to be taken whenever or wherever the situation arises. A mission is not about just ticking boxes at the expense of missed scientific discoveries.
What would you suggest they do in this instance? Spend a few hundred million to send a probe? NASA needs to justify these missions to Mars before Congress. How would you sell it?
What would you suggest they do in this instance? Spend a few hundred million to send a probe? NASA needs to justify these missions to Mars before Congress. How would you sell it?
In this instance maybe there is nothing they can do - apart from take another image at another time and angle which may give us more information.
Although the budget goes up and down, I dont think Congress needs justification due to the spin-offs which are produced by space missions. NASA is a public relations arm of the government and also a huge national ego trip.
I agree that the missions to other places cost a lot of money but then...I would assume they want to do as much investigating as possible with the resources available. However, that is often not the case.
If you want some examples then there have been a number of times when more science could have been done and yet the opportunity was passed by and the rover or spacecraft moved on.
In this instance maybe there is nothing they can do - apart from take another image at another time and angle which may give us more information.
Although the budget goes up and down, I dont think Congress needs justification due to the spin-offs which are produced by space missions. NASA is a public relations arm of the government and also a huge national ego trip.
I agree that the missions to other places cost a lot of money but then...I would assume they want to do as much investigating as possible with the resources available. However, that is often not the case.
If you want some examples then there have been a number of times when more science could have been done and yet the opportunity was passed by and the rover or spacecraft moved on.
So, now I ask you, why do you think that is?
Priorities. They have mission objectives to accomplish and an expensive budget. A lengthy detour to check out an odd-looking rock isn't a good use of resources, unless the team geologist thinks it's promising. More often than not these are just a trick of the eye, so low payoff. (Remember the Face on Mars?) Their goal is to search for signs of ancient life on Mars, which is a worthy mission in itself. If they happen to spot an alien spacecraft hull in the sand, well then that would change things.
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