Strange sight on Mars triggers speculation

By Hum
in Science News & Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

Hum

Posted
Posted

Strange black objects seen from 200 miles above the surface of Mars are generating interest and speculation that the unidentified objects could be anything from geysers to sunbathing colonies of microorganisms.

NPR presents several photos of the objects, including one taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Jan. 27, 2010, that appears to show "little black flecks dotting the ridges, mostly on the sunny side, like sunbathing spiders sitting in rows."

The objects were first spotted in 1998. Interestingly, they appear when the surface of Mars begins to warm, showing up in the same location most of the time. And then when the Martian winter approaches, they disappear with the same precise regularity. The images have been brought into greater detail by Michael Benson in his book "Planetfall: New Solar System Visions."

Most scientists, including teams from the U.S. Geological Survey, Hungary and the European Space Agency, have their own theories, but the leading explanation is that the objects are geysers of CO2 exploding from underneath the planet's surface.

"If you were there, you'd be standing on a slab of carbon dioxide ice," Phil Christensen of Arizona State University told NPR. "All around you, roaring jets of carbon dioxide gas are throwing sand and dust a couple hundred feet into the air. The ground below would be rumbling.

And while the geyser theory is the most popular explanation, it has yet to be verified.

In the meantime, there are some interesting alternative theories, including one from a group of Hungarian scientists, who have speculated that the objects are actually colonies of photosynthetic Martian microorganisms that emerge each year to sunbathe in the warm weather.

source

post-37120-0-13809000-1349440579.jpg

Contributor

Dorza

Posted
Posted

They should launch a probe and study it. IMO the government should be expanding NASA's budget, not cutting it.

Totally agree, NASA took a monumental leap backwards when the shuttle was retired. Just goes to show what disarray NASA is in with it's funding when they don't have a replacement system ready to go from day one. As far as I'm concerned we should never have stopped going to the moon, we would have had a permanent human presence on the moon today had we not. It would have made the leap to mars more likely, perhaps a bit cheaper and with a little less effort...perhaps.

People just aren't as excited about space as the once were so there is no political will. Thickies would rather sit in front of a TV / Internet all day and be zombified into believing the crap that's shoveled down their mouths or have more interest with who cheated on who via Facebook/Twitter than be inspired by something that's actually meaningful to this race.

  • f0rk_b0mb and Jim K
  • Like 2
Collaborator

Iridium

Posted
Posted

Strange black objects seen from 200 miles above

Thats all i had to read to know this is not science. The SI is the only system for science, designed by scientists for scientists. The pound, the inch and other US units are based on the metric system. It is the base of your stupid system, which by the way WAS NOT given to you by a non existent god but instead your past British overlords.

Grand Master

Astra.Xtreme

Posted
Posted

They spent a billion dollars sending the rover to mars. Actually, both the new rovers to mars.

Why the hell didn't they sent it to the 'town' of mars, or 'the face of mars'. . .

The landing site has good possibilities of water traces, which in turn gives higher possibilities of finding signs of life.

These are facts as opposed to the "guesses" of the other things.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/timeline/prelaunch/landingsiteselection/aboutgalecrater/

Grand Master

ILikeTobacco

Posted
Posted

Thats all i had to read to know this is not science. The SI is the only system for science, designed by scientists for scientists. The pound, the inch and other US units are based on the metric system. It is the base of your stupid system, which by the way WAS NOT given to you by a non existent god but instead your past British overlords.

Or maybe they decided to convert it to the target audience. You know, the way you are suppose to do when writing an article or trying to explain something to someone. People find the dumbest things to be nazis about.
Collaborator

Iridium

Posted
Posted

Or maybe they decided to convert it to the target audience. You know, the way you are suppose to do when writing an article or trying to explain something to someone. People find the dumbest things to be nazis about.

Hahah, says someone thinking that not joining the other 95% and ramming their own countries system down our throat is not actually closer to nazism. Also the US public should know the language of science, ignorance is never a good excuse.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • Microsoft Edge gets tons of security features, including AI model that can see your screen

      By Snake Doc · Posted

      Ummmm that is what is it supposed to do. Just turn if off in settings if you do not want it analyzing your open tabs. Chrome does the same thing with Gemini. Sarfari will do the samething after Apple's AI and even more so with the release of their 27 versions that is now powered by Googles LLM/ML models. Understanding why it is doing it and how it can help you vs jumping to some conspiracy theroy is a much better approach. As long as it can be turned off, all is good. Yes the default should be off but the a lot of people would never discover these features.
    • Microsoft Edge gets tons of security features, including AI model that can see your screen

      By WaltC · Posted

      Just another reason (aside from many others) not to use Edge. Firefox 153.0b5 DEx64 has a similar feature added recently in prior builds that I will turn off at some point when I get around to it. It's the new "Something looks suspicious" page that pops up here and there. It cleverly hides itself between web pages that I've actually visited; as a result, you know, of selecting a web page and telling the browser where to go. The interesting thing is that it does not produce these warnings from pages that I, as the only intelligent user of the browser in my system, have ever directed the browser to open! What seems to be happening is that the browser looks at all the goofy ad links on a web page I do actually open and selects one that "looks suspicious" and then creates the "something looks suspicious" web page, which is neatly inserted, as mentioned, between web pages my RB ("real brain") has directed the browser to load in a session. The thing is, I usually look at links I am considering to follow before I ask the browser to load them, and in cases I have noticed where the link does indeed look suspicious, most of the time I will choose to not follow the link at all. Doesn't everyone do this or something similar? I am picky about what I voluntarily load... (I don't like links that start off fine, with a site designaiton that seems normal enough but then is followed by indecipherable alphanumeric strings many, many lines long, etc. I tend to reject those because they look suspicious. They may not be, but I don't care... I'll stay with Firefox, of course, if for no other reason than they usually let you turn off the junk you don't like. And because it isn't Edge... But at some point Microsoft will come to realize that putting your bookmarks on the left side is a Good Thing for a lot of people, just as Microsoft discovered when it had the bright idea of nailing the Windows taskbar to the bottom of the screen, when for decades Microsoft browsers had left that placement up to the user. They have finally reversed the obscenity of that decision. Finally.
    • Google's new hand-wave reCAPTCHA can be bypassed with a stock photo

      By Ccl Ncc · Posted

      Google was using the old CATPCHAs data to train their LLMs. What is the say they won't use this camera data of users to train their LLM? these companies need some strict regulations!
    • How do you future-proof a home or small office network?

      By Mindovermaster · Posted

      Depends on what you need. Might be a bit clearer on what you plan to do with it. Sort of a waste if you get the newest and greatest, but don't know how to use it.
    • NTLite 2026.06.11200

      By Copernic · Posted

      NTLite 2026.06.11200 by Razvan Serea NTLite is a Windows configuration tool that allows you to modify your existing Windows install or an image yet to be deployed, remove Windows components, configure and integrate, speed up the Windows deployment process. Reduce Windows footprint on your RAM and storage drive memory. Remove components of your choice, guarded by compatibility safety mechanisms, which speed up finding that sweet spot. Windows Unattended feature support, providing many commonly used options on a single page for easy setup. Easily integrate a single or multiple drivers, update or language packages. Package integration features smart sorting, enabling you to seamlessly add packages for integration and the tool will apply them in the appropriate order, keeping hotfix compatibility in check. One of the important new features of NTLite (compared to its predecessors) is the ability to modify an already installed the operating system, by removing unnecessary components. Supports Windows 11, 10, 8.1 and 7, x86 and x64, live and image. Server editions of the same versions, excluding support for component removals and feature configuration. ARM64 image support in the alpha stage. Does not support Checked/Debug, Embedded, IoT editions, nor Vista or XP. NTLite 2026.06.11200 changelog: New Secure Boot Migration support: Verification, certificate staging, and boot-manager/sector update across the Image, Updates, Apply, and Create-ISO pages (2023 CA migration, optional 2011 revocation, Anti-rollback, Boot sector choice etc) Secure Boot Host Readiness: Live host Secure Boot migration monitor and Servicing-task control Option under Image page - C:\Windows row, or load the host as the target - Updates - Secure Boot Image: 'Sort mounted images first' option for the image list in Menu-Settings UI: Hover description card for Components and Unattended pages, selectable text and quick access to Compatibility options Command line: Relay commands into the already-running instance Enables controlling already running NTLite via ntlite.exe Use /NewInstance to launch an additional instance using CLI operations (premium) UI: 'New instance' option via main menu instead of a secondary ntlite.exe prompt Apply: Hide individual Apply-page notes with a per-note dismiss (X), critical excluded Settings: 'Unsigned RDP file launch warnings' tweak (RDP client), bypassing the April 2026 security-update prompt on RDP connections Upgrade Image: Live OS and deployed image editing now unlocked on free/test licenses, same licensing as images Image: 'Recompress' option in manual dialog Remove Editions to shrink the WIM in one session Image: SWM part size set inline on the Apply page and image dialogs, split-size popup retired Image: Relative 'Last change' dates; editions grouped by build time to reduce noise Image: 'Forget - Missing' on the Edit-cache menu to mass drop entries whose folder is gone Components: Root groups reorganized - user-facing groups first, system/critical last Components: Show filter options to view components by Template or App-type, since Apps are now merged into groups Presets: Delete confirmation now lists the multi-selected preset names UI: Design update propagated to the rest of the tool UI: Filter and search match words in any order and partially, better results filtering Components Unattended: Input-locale language derives from the user locale, with an independent keyboard picker, enables combinations previously unavailable Unattended: Input-locale now allows for a user value override Unattended: Localization OOBE WinPE now can be copied with the new WinPE Copy OOBE localization toggle, enter locale settings once for both stages Updates: Downloader greys and locks updates the image already carries (hotfix and MSIX) Updates: Resume interrupted update downloads Command line: Many upgrades, see /?, now prints help to the console or redirected output UI-Translation: Finnish language added, also thanks for Chinese Traditional (Matt), French (tistou77), Italian (clarensio), Russian (RDS), Swedish (1FF), Vietnamese (Vu Anh Vu) Fix Components: Containers removal breaking Apps deployment Components: Microsoft Account had leftovers when Easy Migrate is kept Image: Export to an existing WIM improvements, Append renamed to Merge Image: Improved 26H1 live removal support Image: No more 'X:\ not accessible' popup for certain drives during image scan Presets: Manual image refresh picks up presets added/removed outside the app Tweaks: Disabled visual-effect animations no longer return after first logon on a new profile Tweaks: Live Visual Effects toggles (animations, drag full windows, font smoothing) now apply correctly Download: NTLite 2026.06.11200 | 20.5 MB (Free, paid upgrade available) Link: NTLite Home Page | NTLite Features | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware

  • Recent Achievements

    • One Year In
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      KMilenkoski1202 earned a badge
      First Post
    • First Post
      carols23 earned a badge
      First Post
    • One Month Later
      Tom Willson earned a badge
      One Month Later

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      510
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      258
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      151
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      94
    5. 5
      macoman
      66
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!