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Mars UMO, Unidentified Moving Objects, in The Mars Phoenix Lander Microscopic Imager?

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Uploaded by on Apr 15, 2009

Life on Mars? Movement of Microorganism-like objects caught on the Mars Phoenix Microscopic imager by time-lapse imaging. Judge for yourself, is this the first real Martian Life forms that the world has ever seen?

NASA JPL Link to raw images:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/raw/OM/om_topgallery_collect...

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  • cont - A dust devil would have that energy but these images are shot minutes apart, so if a dust devil moved over the rover it would be gone in a flash and wouldn't hang around for several minutes to several hours during the time the first image was shot and the last image was shot.

    Formula for a wind generated movement is P = 1/2 Cd pAV³

    P = power, Cd = Coefficient of drag, p = density of the air, A = surface area, and V = velocity. For the load on different particles we can use

    F = P/V

  • @shineinnovations if you notice the two objects in the scorpion like objects moving around in Sol 123 they are geometrically objects that are close to each other in size and form as would be expected by a species of the same type of life form, note the maggot type objects are also close approximation of shape relative to teach other???

  • The wind theory on this is way overblown, first off the size of these objects is 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm / .004 to .008 inches which is 1,000 to 40,000 times larger than the fine grain particles of dust that blows around on Mars which is from 0.5 to 30 um in size 0.5 to 30 x 10ˉ^6 m. It takes a lot of energy to move a 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm particle on mars under a 9 millibar pressure the average pressure at the Phoenix Lander site.

  • Ron, These substrates are vertical, and we moved them in and out between frames to adjust the focus. The stage vibrates when we do this, and some particles slide down. Most of your animations are of our magnetic substrates, and the sliding tells us which particles are more or less magnetic (the reddish glassy ones move more readily than the coarse brown ones). This helps us understand how the various types of particles formed.

    Michael Hecht, Phoenix investigator

  • Thanks Michael for that summation, always glad to contribute to finding answers. My main question is the magnetic instrument turned on during the entire length of the animations, the color images where I was lucky enough to make more than two slides because the RGB filters werent available all the time, runs 15 minutes or more between the first image to the last one. Some of the moving red glassy objects seem to be fluid jell-like when they moved.

  • quite intriguing, some look like brine droplets, others like bits of sand rolling around possibly due to vibrations from moving the robotic arm? I still like the ice worm one the best.

  • Thanks, theanimenmasterman that was my interpretation of most of the movement too, some do look transparent fluid jell-like, it may be brine. It is much warmer in the soil close to the surface during the daytime due to the absorption of the solar radiation then the air just centimeters above it however I am curious to what the temperature would be in a contained area where the images were taken in the sunlight.

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  • Even if wind doesn't get into the sample scanner (or however it works). If there's wind, there's potential for vibration of the lander unit. And if it's doing that, there might be enough to make whatever it's looking at move. (Which proably isn't much at that scale.) If there's moisture in the sample (Mars presumably has water), there could be melting or capillary effects too. I think it would be cool to see "critters" there, but other causes for movement have to be ruled out first.

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  • Mars Limpets

  • so it,s eather stinging the other one with the scorpion tail thing, or it's a microscopic penis :(

  • I think if we could see them at very high microscopic Levels we would see them eating whatever it is on that surface' but I don,t know how these things exist but this is interesting, I think in the coming yrs, were going to find some amazing things not only on mars but on titan as well"!!..I hope I Live Long enough to see all this I,m 98' yrs, old now so I don,t know how Long I have" I want.~> I,m sorry this is his wife he Died" During this statement" he just dropped dead like a fly Im sorry :{

  • Meanwhile on Mars... ... it was windy.

  • crab

  • Thank you for the video shineinnovations. Very cool, great work Phoenix project, and all concerned. I am grateful for the opportunity to follow the drama. It is fascinating watching the science play out.

    A few questions come to mind.

    How is it that no matter how huge an image from space being shared is - of something huge or of something small - the sharp details are missing? And really, why do we see everything in false color instead of real $99.00 digicam color?

    Fractals and Holograms...

  • why don't they just send ppl to mars... idiots... its all politicians fault. they ruin the whole world

  • If the cause was wind or ground rumbling there would be more objects moving. Many of these do in fact look like mites. One of them does appear to be melting water but the others seems similar in shape and movement and are those legs I see crawling? Not surprising, very interesting and I look forward to seeing even more of the same as our equipment gets better.

  • wow. martian raisins!

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