On Sep 1, 2008, at 5:25 AM, Terry Blanton wrote:
Yes, there are three white blobs including a thin one on the right
which seems to grow from nowhere between the photos.
Terry
For convenience, here are the original references:
Compare:
Sol 68, time 10:40:06, position 23077, FOCUS 49111, illumination blue:
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=17626&cID=198
to the micrograph:
Sol 93, time 17:21:00, position 23104, focus 49111, illumination blue:
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=25876&cID=259
These can also be seen in the original photos at:
Older:
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images/gallery/lg_17626.jpg
Newer:
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images/gallery/lg_25876.jpg
If you carefully register and then toggle between the above two
photos you can see that the vertical thin line actually doesn't grow
from nowhere, but separates, or disappears anyway. In the *newer*
photo, Sol 93, there are actually two small white dots at the end
points of where the line was, each about 2 pixels wide. Trailing off
to the right of the dots, at a 45 degree angle toward each other, are
what appear to me to be very fine white lines, perhaps about a pixel
wide. As you toggle between the two photos it looks to me that the
thick white line in the *older* Sol 68 photo separates into the two
thinner disjoint lines. In any case, the fine white lines that trail
off on an angle appear in the second photo, but the thick line
between the dots disappears. I think the lines lie mostly in the
focal plane, i.e. are not vertical, because there is no sign of depth
of field problems, or shadows. That's how I see it, though that is a
matter of interpretation, while the order of events is not.
More speculatively, since the small objects involved are only about 4
to 8 microns in size, perhaps we have here a record of a very slow
form of asexual reproduction? I suppose it could be so slow because
the life form is often frozen, or in some kind of sludge state?
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
