There is no lumber on Mars

[Ediacara]

Overzealous mods locked this when it was posted in GD. Hopefully this will stay open longer and foster some discussion.

There has been a http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2871661 "> really lengthy thread concerning a photo taken by Opportunity supposedly showing a piece of lumber. The photo can be seen in the original thread.

If we look at the "lumber" close up, and lighten the photo a little bit we see something amazing. It's a rock. And not just any rock, but a perfectly ordinary piece of sandstone, just like all the surrounding pieces of rock.



There are lines on the "lumber" that match the spacing and direction of the laminae in adjacent pieces of sandstone perfectly. From weathering patterns on nearby rocks, we can see that the regional dip of the laminae is around 30-40 degrees, and dipping away from the camera. Let me illustrate what is going on in this photo, by first putting lines of section through the "lumber":



Let's look at A-A'. Note, that in all images, orange spaces are where dust has filled cracks.



Now, let's look at B-B', which crosses the "lumber." What's obvious in close ups is the far end of the lumber is firmly attached to (and part of) the substrate, and is dipping at the same angle and direction as the laminae. It is raised a little bit from the surrounding rock, but since the sun is in front of is, a huge, dark shadow forms making it not only look darker than the surrounding sandstone blocks, but above them:



Now the last cross section, from C-C', is pretty similar to what's seen in A-A'.



This type of feature is not at all uncommon, and because of odd circumstances and placement of the rover and the sun at the time of the photo, this small rock knob ended up looking kind of like a board.

[El Supremo]

1. Looks like a coprolite to me.

And I'm an expert.
- Ripley Marks

[Ian David]

3. Damn. Bush was going to fly to Mars to clear brush

eom

[brainshrub]

2. I still think it's wood from Bush's lumber company.

That's why he want to go to Mars, his company will be the one providing all the materials.

I'm 99.99999999% sure this kind of thing was said in the thread that got locked.

[SariesNightly]

4. There's no point sending manned missions there..

.. because they'll have ZERO resources to get back. It's basically a suicide mission.

That the entire admin choose to go public with this asinine idea, have NASA suspend shuttling, and let the Hubble fall apart is proof enough to show how far down the deep end Jesusland has gone.

[Maple]

6. Sigh. It would be nice

if there was some actual science in the science forum.

[Mike Niendorff]

17. no shit.

I swear, if I see one more of those Art-Bell-type posts here, I think I'm gonna scream.


MDN

[Obviousman]

5. Need some wood!?

But in all seriousness, this is pretty cool

[MrMonk]

7. I dunno

those flat pieces sure look like plywood to me!

[tridim]

8. The ONLY reason I don't think it's a rock

is because NASA didn't take the obvious step of driving the fucking rover up close to it and snapping a picture or two. The rover is built for research and they seem to be doing everything but real research. It's like they said, hey that's a nifty rock, lets ignore it and go look at some more sand.

Why the hell didn't they drive up close to the object? Or did they?

[pmbryant]

9. Quite an accusation there

The rover is built for research and they seem to be doing everything but real research.

What's the basis for this accusation?

:shrug:

Peter

[tridim]

11. The fact that they apparently ignore the interesting finds

Like the lumber and the wet spot early in the mission. I don't mean to imply that they're not doing the research, just that they're not showing us.

[Ediacara]

10. They didn't drive over there because it's a rock

[tridim]

12. That doesn't stop them from driving over to boring rocks all the time

and examining them microscopically with the rat.

[pmbryant]

13. Geologists have a different eye than the rest of us

Not being one, I can't claim to understand it in detail. But I know a few geologists, and things that look "boring" to the rest of us can be ultimately fascinating to geologists, and reveal a wealth of information about their history. The "neat looking" stuff is often just ordinary rocks with strange shapes.

Peter

[tridim]

14. True, but if I saw that on ~Earth~ I'd go check it out

Even if it's a rock, it's interesting enough because it's so out of place relative to the overall structure of the surrounding rocks. I can't think of any reason not to get closer to that thing.

[Ediacara]

15. Peter's right

It's an oddly shaped rock. If anything I would move the rover into the background of the pic. It seems weird there.

[tridim]

16. I'm not saying you guys are wrong

but what makes you so sure it's "just a rock"? Do you have some inside info? Are you geologists? You'd think NASA would at least issue a statement confiming that it is a rock, so far nothing. Why? It's not like they haven't recieved thousands of emails asking about it.

[Mike Niendorff]

18. Oh, for god's sake: IT'S A ROCK.

NASA probably hasn't felt it necessary to debunk this nonsense for precisely the same reason that they don't bother issuing statements explaining that the moon is not actually made of green cheese.

Get a grip.


MDN