Octopi on Mars

[fritchie]

Here is an odd sand pattern the Spirit robot picked up on Mars about a week and a half ago. I was waiting for some NASA comment about how this might have formed, but they seem to have skipped it as of no interest.

The upper rock has several trails emanating from it, and you might expect that if these are wind trails, each new trail would be accompanied by erasure of earlier ones. This seems not to have happened. All I can guess is that the trails somehow become loosely cemented in place, and they are not necessarily destroyed by later wind gusts. All the same, it’s striking.

This was taken on sol 61, shortly after Spirit reached the rim of Bonneville crater.

[JAZ]

It looks really cool. Like tunnels. Maybe there is some form of invertebrate living there. I know that the conditions seem inhospitable for life forms, but think about the giant tubeworms near the steam vents at the ocean floor, for example. No light at all, no apparent nutrients because there's no photosynthesis and then the extreme heat. Life there would seem impossible, but there they are, and big and beautiful too.

[RuBert]

It would be like that B movie - Tremors - with the giant worms that live under the sand. And the scientists have the remote control rover that gets swallowed - then is blown-up.

Boy that movie was a waste of time to watch, but it's funny that I remember how bad it was - or rather campy - yes that's it, campy. :)