OK, sure, I make fun of biology sometimes. I blame PZ; he’s such an easy target! But then, sometimes, I wonder. Take a look at this:
 |
Is this an orbital view of dune fields on Mars, or a close-up of tentacles on a jellyfish?
OK, they’re dune fields. But don’t they look biological? The grooves are gullies running down from the crests of the dunes, but from the altitude and resolution of the camera HiRISE on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter they look like organic growths seen through a microscope.
But since they’re on Mars, they’re way cooler.
You can keep up with new images from Mars on the HiRISE website. You can also follow HiRISE on Twitter!
January 8th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Is this an orbital view of dune fields on Mars, or a close-up of tentacles on a jellyfish?
Ah! Trick question! It’s a giant jellyfish…. on MARS!
January 8th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Is this a false color photo or does it have some enhancements? What are all the ‘green’ areas??
January 8th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
“Is this a false color photo or does it have some enhancements? What are all the ‘green’ areas??”
As in all HiRISE color images, the image is taken in three wavelength bands (one in the red region of the spectrum, one in the blue-green, and one in the infrared) and then they are merged together by applying an appropriate color to each of the layers, usually to maximized to show salient features. So by definition, all HiRISE images are “false color.”
Whether it represents an accurate recreation of what it would look like to the human eye requires digging into the data file and finding out what color maps were applied, and even then it is difficult to say … notice that it’s very low ilumination, and that always plays havoc with the difference between a sensor image and what a human eye would perceive.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Addendum: For some details of the color filtering of the sensor, see my tutorial on Emily Lakdawalla’s blog page, http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001547/
January 8th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
I think the green spots are the Martian equivalent of sagebrush, the food source, no doubt, of Martian megapods.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
@ ABR:
No, no, no! The megapods were hunted to extinction by the guys in blue body suits!
(But seriously, aren’t the spots just outcroppings of bedrock?)
January 8th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
What’s the Martian equivalent of Gaia?
Maybe Mars himself is the living being?
January 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Ha…Phil experienced Tentacledolia!!!
January 8th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I dunno … it looks just a landscape to me … a landscape designed by H. R. Giger, that is.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
OK, I saw the photgraph and thought “why does Phil have sperm under a microscope?”
January 8th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Where’s Richard Hoagland when you need him.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Timothy, thanks for the link. I read it.
Phil always did love that HiRISE image of the Phoenix lander falling through the Martian atmosphere. I liked it too, but I now have an even greater appreciation for it than before. That picture was EVEN HARDER to get than I thought, and I thought it was pretty hard to get.
It wasn’t just the case that they had to point the camera at the falling lander at the right time, which I think is impressive. They also had to align HiRISE at the perfect angle relative to the trajectory of the falling lander due to the time delay integration of the sensor array. The thought of the math involved makes my eyes roll back in my head. I’m going to try not to pass out.
I think HiRISE is a spectacular instrument and I appreciate its complexity even better now. It’s like making a three-point shot, but doing it in high heel skates on a skateboard on a greasy bowling ball. Goodness.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
@Charles Boyer:
The Martian equivalent of Gaia would be Maria
January 8th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Looks a lot more like erosion due to water than dunes… but I’m a dreamer.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
It’s a fantastic lush image. I don’t see jellyfish tenticles like Kitty I see sperm, racing their way towards a non existant martian egg.
January 8th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Yeah, no stinging tentacle crap, or any cephalopod! ^_^
January 9th, 2009 at 6:56 am
To me it looks like a bunch of wriggling sperm. This fits into the theory that all the planets are ova ready to hatch out as giant dragons.
January 9th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Not so strange. The same mathematics controls physical and biological processes. Why shouldn’t structures look similar?
A question: if astronomy is deemed a ’superior’ science, then why are astronomers searching so hard for off-earth biological activity? Just asking…
January 9th, 2009 at 7:52 am
I’m pretty sure PZ would think it was a picture of pharyngeal arches.
Ahem.
As for me, I’m thinking gills.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
[...] and the full article here Bioastronomy [...]
January 9th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Wow – what a stunningly lovely image. It rivals anything I’ve seen in a museum (hey – modern art doesn’t HAVE to be ugly
I <3 nature!