Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Wed 05/28/2025 View Tue 05/27/2025 View Mon 05/26/2025 View Sun 05/25/2025 View Sat 05/24/2025 View Fri 05/23/2025 View Thu 05/22/2025
2022-05-16 Science & Technology
Here's The Official Explanation For Mars 'Doorway'
[ZeroHedge] The Brits have 'debunked' a photograph taken on May 7 by NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars which resembles a doorway cut into the side of a cliff.

There are two explanations; it's a small, naturally occurring rectangular gap, and it's a tiny, naturally occurring rectangular gap.

In a statement to Science Live, France-based planetary geologist Nicholas Mangold says it's less than 3 feet (1 meter) high.

Professor Sanjeev Gupta at Imperial College London told the Daily Telegraph that it's even smaller - measuring roughly 30cm by 45cm. (11" x 17"), and caused by small fractures in the rock.

"There are linear fractures throughout this outcrop, and this is a location where several linear fractures happen to intersect," according to the scientists.

One can also look at the surrounding area via gigapan, where a similar 'cave door' can be seen to the left.

Curiosity is currently climbing an 18,000 foot mountain, Mount Sharp, the crater of which the rover landed in August 2012. The odd photo was taken on Greenheugh Pediment, which notably has rough, 'gator-back' terrain that resembles reptilian scales.

As VICE notes, "The door-like formation is just the latest in a series of weird extraterrestrial features spotted over the decades by interplanetary explorers, robotic and human, that have sparked the imaginations of onlookers. Earlier this week, people marveled at new images of claw-like scratches that stretch for hundreds of miles across the western hemisphere of the red planet, which were captured from outer space by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter. These are not the markings of some giant Martian cat in search of a scratching post, but rather ancient fault lines."
Posted by Skidmark 2022-05-16 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ]  Top

#1 You can believe this long-winded, jargon-filled maundering or just trust your lying eyes...
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-16 00:04||   2022-05-16 00:04|| Front Page Top

#2 Until they go to Cydonia or the ice caps I just don't give a crap anymore.

NASA's history of de-resolutioning photos makes them as reliable as a dominion voting machine.
Posted by Woodrow 2022-05-16 02:21||   2022-05-16 02:21|| Front Page Top

#3 
Posted by Woodrow 2022-05-16 02:31||   2022-05-16 02:31|| Front Page Top

#4 Didja notice the Ring doorbell?
Posted by Frank G 2022-05-16 06:51||   2022-05-16 06:51|| Front Page Top

#5 /\ Yer goona send Tucker Carlson and the extraterrestrial crowd into a severe panic with that one Frank.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-05-16 07:24||   2022-05-16 07:24|| Front Page Top

#6 So that is where our new Martian overlords live.
Posted by DarthVader 2022-05-16 08:24||   2022-05-16 08:24|| Front Page Top

#7 I've done a lot of spelunking in my younger days. Cave openings just don't look like mine portals or bunker entrances unless they have been "enhanced" for commercial tourism purposes.

That said, I suspect this is a very peculiar natural formation.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-16 08:31||   2022-05-16 08:31|| Front Page Top

#8 No beauty, calm, and couth yet?
Posted by Richard Aubrey 2022-05-16 09:33||   2022-05-16 09:33|| Front Page Top

#9 
Posted by Taurus  2022-05-16 11:51||   2022-05-16 11:51|| Front Page Top

#10 It could be an entrance to an emergency shelter some poor unfortunate crashed off-world traveler(s) made many millennia ago.

You know, when they were helping build the pyramids and stuff.

Yeah, I know. Too much History Channel.
Posted by Mullah Richard 2022-05-16 12:39||   2022-05-16 12:39|| Front Page Top

#11 We found the Clinton's body disposal facility!
Posted by Silentbrick 2022-05-16 13:05||   2022-05-16 13:05|| Front Page Top

#12 #2: Dominion machines are very reliable. they will rwe-0tell any lie you program them to.
Posted by irish rage boy 2022-05-16 17:51||   2022-05-16 17:51|| Front Page Top

#13 Straight edges and angles are common in limestone, but I don't think you can have limestone without ancient sealife.
Posted by ruprecht 2022-05-16 21:08||   2022-05-16 21:08|| Front Page Top

#14 ^ You are forgetting the ancient oceans of Barsoom. Used to be a nice place before the atmosphere cooked away.
Posted by SteveS 2022-05-16 21:30||   2022-05-16 21:30|| Front Page Top

09:43 Mullah Richard
09:27 Warthog
09:11 Mercutio
09:07 AlmostAnonymous5839
08:52 Matt
08:24 Matt
08:20 SteveS
07:43 Procopius2k
07:42 BrerRabbit
07:42 Procopius2k
07:39 Procopius2k
07:36 Procopius2k
07:35 Procopius2k
07:34 trailing wife
07:31 Procopius2k
07:30 NN2N1
07:22 NN2N1
07:18 trailing wife
07:14 Richard Aubrey
07:10 NN2N1
07:09 Besoeker
07:03 NN2N1
06:58 NN2N1
06:58 Besoeker









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com