Starship Asterisk*

smitty wrote:I was merely using the term "game trails" to point out and to describe what strike me as interesting surface disturbances. Sorry if some folks actually took this literally. I've done considerable hiking in terrain similar to this in Arizona, USA. If I saw disturbances such as these in Arizona I'd think, "Aha, a game trail and/or a hiking trail!" If I saw these disturbances on Mars I'd think, "Aha, these are interesting disturbances worth pointing out and investigating further!" Clear enough?

JohnD wrote:Don't take offence! That's a genuine smile on my gorilla face!
But why describe natural rock fissures as "game trails"? That is not an accepted geological term, and it raises the fantasy that so many here indulge in.
Being able to see these structures so close and so clear is wonder enough without asking ourselves if there is life currently on Mars.

It would be good to hear from geologists, who may explain the raised rim along those fissures. I would suggest a similar mechanism to ice polygons in the tundra, where recurrent freeze/thaw cycles lead to raised edges. This implies that now or earlier there was enough water in the ground for this to happen.

John

smitty wrote:

JohnD wrote:
I fear you have your curiousity set to stun!

John

And your curiosity is set to? Some natural force(s) caused distinct surface disturbances having the appearance of what -- if found on Earth -- might easily be taken for game trails or hiking trails. And you're not curious about that?

JohnD wrote:
I fear you have your curiousity set to stun!

John

BMAONE23 wrote:

smitty wrote:

Canadian Grandma wrote:My mind translates 5 meters as about 16 feet. Is that correct? If so ,then "Baby Remarkable" is about the size of a bungalow, and the 'game trails' are fairly narrow. I think I see another 'trickle trail' coming down from the right (as we look at it) shoulder, and ending just to the right of the end of the ridge of that nice little dune. Does any one else see it?
Joyce

I think I see what you're referring to as a trickle trail, but it's much thinner (narrower) that the two prominent ones, and oddly "straight," too. Almost could imagine it as being a seam in the image. Would like to know more about the image and especially whether it might be possible to see a "blow-up" or "close-up" of these interesting features. Can the earth-bound operators zoom in on them? That might help pin down their origin.

Here is the closest HiDef image I could locate

And Here is the Big Thumb List of that days images

Psnarf wrote:
Whatever you do, don't send Rover over (?) to knock on the door. We do not yet understand Martian.
"Welcome" and "Do Not Disturb" appear to us equally undecipherable.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/10826683/Pope-Francis-says-Martians-have-right-to-be-baptised.html wrote:
Pope Francis says Martians have right to be baptised
By Nick Squires, The Telegraph, 13 May 2014

<<During the early morning Mass at Casa Santa Martha [Pope Francis] said: “If tomorrow... an expedition of Martians arrives, and some of them came to us, here ... Martians, right? Green, with the long noses and big ears...and one says, 'But I want to be baptized!' What would happen ?" The answer, he said, was that the Church should not “close the doors” to anyone and the Martians should be embraced as equals.>>

ta152h0 wrote:hiding from us, we are the aliens over there.

lifeonmars wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithops

One of the types of life we might find on Mars

smitty wrote:

Canadian Grandma wrote:My mind translates 5 meters as about 16 feet. Is that correct? If so ,then "Baby Remarkable" is about the size of a bungalow, and the 'game trails' are fairly narrow. I think I see another 'trickle trail' coming down from the right (as we look at it) shoulder, and ending just to the right of the end of the ridge of that nice little dune. Does any one else see it?
Joyce

I think I see what you're referring to as a trickle trail, but it's much thinner (narrower) that the two prominent ones, and oddly "straight," too. Almost could imagine it as being a seam in the image. Would like to know more about the image and especially whether it might be possible to see a "blow-up" or "close-up" of these interesting features. Can the earth-bound operators zoom in on them? That might help pin down their origin.

DavidLeodis wrote:The superb quality of images sent back from such as the Curiosity rover continues to amaze me.

Clicking on the APOD brings up a slightly wider field-of-view mosaic that has Sol 603 in its caption. It took some doing but I've been able to find that the raw images used in producing the excellent mosaic were taken on April 17 2014, which I think may be that of Sol 603 of Curiosity's tour of Mars based on Earth time though I'm by no means sure.

Nitpicker wrote:

madtom1999 wrote:base-to-peak height --> base-to-peak ratio

I think you might be wrong about that. Not sure what a base-to-peak ratio is.

Canadian Grandma wrote:My mind translates 5 meters as about 16 feet. Is that correct? If so ,then "Baby Remarkable" is about the size of a bungalow, and the 'game trails' are fairly narrow. I think I see another 'trickle trail' coming down from the right (as we look at it) shoulder, and ending just to the right of the end of the ridge of that nice little dune. Does any one else see it?
Joyce

neufer wrote:

smitty wrote:
I'd guess that the fine sand is simply a wind-blown dune, but that's just a quick, off-the-cuff guess.

The dune strikes me as less odd than the two "game trails." Will be eager to read what the experts have to say!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_transhumance wrote:
<<Alpine transhumance is transhumance as practiced in the Alps, that is, a seasonal droving of grazing livestock between the valleys in winter and the high mountain pastures in summer (German Alpwirtschaft, Almwirtschaft from the term for "seasonal mountain pasture", Alp, Alm). Seasonal migration to high pastures is still practiced in Bavaria, Austria, Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland. In some places, cattle are taken care of by local farmer families who move to higher places. In others, this job is for herdsmen who are employees of the cooperative owning the pastures.>>