Planet Four Talk

Calling all scientists...

  • Milkywaystars by Milkywaystars

    I need facts. The picture to the left is rare and extraordinary. I think the bluey black is an oil spillage from a satellite but the lump might be a creature inside the core or crust. I need help with this investigation.

    Posted

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator in response to Milkywaystars's comment.

    I believe the lump is probably active carbon dioxide venting from the crack in the ice. The fan is a deposit 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

  • wassock by wassock moderator

    Meg, do you know where the sun is in this image? If at the top then the lump appears to be throwing a shadow

    Posted

  • Portyankina by Portyankina scientist

    Hi everybody!

    According to our spacecraft data, the sun in this image comes from bottom right, more precise 34.2 deg clockwise from the line you draw horizontally from the image center to the right.
    The dark fans, as Meg said, is what we are looking for.
    The structure to the right side of the image (round-ish area with pinkish fringe to the its lower right corner) is a flatter area. The shadow down from this structure is caused by inclination between this flatter part and and patterned right corner area. The inclination is in a way that flatter area is lower than patterned ground.

    I know, it's tricky to see and my explanation might be not that clear... Maybe like this is better: think about the sun illuminating from lower right corner. Thank from that corner follow on the diagonal. First, flat area of patterned ground with lots of bumps, than it goes down where it gets darker (=shadow), then comes pink fringe, that flat smooth surface of the feature everybody discusses, than brighter smooth part - this is where ground goes up towards second pattered ground.

    Anya

    Posted

  • Stoobs by Stoobs

    Roughly how large is that flattened area? 3-400 metres?

    Potential habitation dome site / probe landing zone ? 😉

    Posted

  • Portyankina by Portyankina scientist

    My problem with giving you scale is that I do not know if this was takes with 0.5 or 1 m/pix resolution and I do not know the size of this frame. Let's say, the frame is 600 pixels wide, so the flattened area is appr. 200 pixels, which means it is either 100 or 200 m across.
    I saw similar features nearby this one, they are not that usual, but not unique.

    Anya

    Posted

  • pocketmoon by pocketmoon

    I think there is a case for orientating all the images so the sun comes in from the upper left - makes it easy for humans to interpret shadows.😃

    Posted

  • JellyMonster by JellyMonster

    I have been saying this all along... even the scientists now agree that this would be a better way to display them. Probably too late now as loads of data has been streaming in.

    Posted

  • pocketmoon by pocketmoon

    nah - just a small change to the javascript this website uses for the objects classification page 😃

    Posted

  • JellyMonster by JellyMonster

    Can you do it?

    It’s unlucky, that we got the most problematic sun position for our project.

    This quote was taken from their blog. As we know, the solution is dead simple and yet it seems, that not one scientist or engineer, even gave it a second thought. My head is still hurting from banging it against the wall so many times.

    On a lighter note, I think pocketmoon is the best user name I have come across so far.

    Posted

  • trebor82 by trebor82

    I want to live right on top of that mountain! stunning view. I could use my home made jet pack to fly around and gather some data! lol

    Posted

  • JellyMonster by JellyMonster

    What mountain?

    Posted

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator in response to JellyMonster's comment.

    We'll probably do this when we actually use map projected images in the next iteration.
    ~Meg

    Posted

  • AUricle by AUricle in response to JellyMonster's comment.

    Jelly,
    Thanks for the note regarding negating the image.
    So what you propose requires downloading the image to our own devices,
    otherwise they can't be rotated or negated.
    Or is there some tool available here that I'm not seeing?

    Posted

  • JellyMonster by JellyMonster

    There is no tool I'm afraid. Go to the 'Veins' post in objects and read the last few threads.

    Posted