bacteria colony
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by
SEJones
do you mean the white specks? these do not appear to have typical characteristic of large-scale bacterial colonies (biofilms). on earth, biofilms do form in hostile environments (like hot springs) but appear as dense connected patches. in my view, this image does not really indicate presence of biofilm. however i coud be wrong as earth analogies may not always apply..
the white specks look as though they are 'hovering' on surface even above the fractures. was this image taken in spring? if so, possible that warming has melted the thinner layer of ice leaving the thicker specks of ice yet to melt.? by the way, i have no sense of scale so cannot propose a good explanation the planetary scientists can consider!
Posted
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by
mschwamb
scientist, translator
Anya, a member of the science team, has mentioned in another post "
These bright freckles are real. They are specular reflections from the parts of the ice-covered surface that has just the right angular position towards the sun and our camera. Something like that shimmer you see on the snow-covered field at sunny day. But instead of snowflakes here we have larger surface patches.
There is nothing biological going on here. The dashed black lines are cracks in the carbon dioxide ice sheet. Those are blotches and fans which are deposits of dust and dirt. They are produced by carbon dioxide geysers on the South pole of Mars which lofts the dust on to the top of the carbon dioxide ice sheet in the summer and fall in the Southern hemisphere. We want you to mark these with the blotch and fan tool. You can learn more about what these features are here and here.
Cheers,
~Meg
Posted
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by
SEJones
many thanks. i did not think that a biological cause was likely given what we know aboout biofilm morphology. i first saw this image on Stargazing Live on BBC and was intrigued and now finally we have an explanation. that's great.
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