Blueberries

Blueberries

Below are images by Opportunity of spherical objects named Blueberries. Note from Sol 17 image how the blueberries give dark bluish appearance to the landscape. Can the large dark areas like Sinus Meridiani in Mars be partly caused by blueberries? Also note that the sky is blue, an issue which we handle at the end of this article in chapter Colors in Mars. Is there a recent water flow traces visible in Sol 122 blueberry area? Read remarkable observations about blueberries by Dr. Lyall Winston Small in his year 2012 book In search of life on Mars . The images below present some of Dr.Small's observations.

During 3 days from Sol 1145 to 1148 the size of Blueberries has got larger and there has appeared new blueberries in 3 days time. Also observe blueberry C: the hole in the sand has appeared on below-left area of the blueberry C. Has blueberry C done small movement while growing? Is there a stem under? It could be argued that wind has moved the sand, exposing the berries more in sol 1148. Counterargument is that in that case the mass of the sand would have moved the berries also, but the berries are stationary. A, B, C and N1 have exactly same relative position compared to each other. Note the shape and features of berries A, B and C: they have not rolled. General question: What is the probability for lifeless stones to grow, just when Opportunity arrived there and pointed them with microscopic imager camera?

Note that several blueberries have a stem in Sol 88 image. See the surface patterns of blueberries in Sol 221 image. See in low-left corner the blue spot after grinding the stone. The blue channel continues inside the stone? Sol 1103 broken Blueberry has internal structure, which does not fit for a hematite spherule theory by NASA. Fungi on Earth can grow together like in Sol 182 image.

On Sol 1232 Opportunity has driven over blueberries. The arrow points to blue stains resulted from over driven blueberries. On Sol 1289 new rover tracks there is no more unbroken blueberries on surface. But in the same Sol 1289 image, the old rover tracks (done in Sol 952) have been refilled with blueberries again!

Compare the blueberry fields between Sol 1143 and 1150 images. There is new berries in Sol 1150, and some berries have got larger. In Sol 546 Opportunity has grinded soil where there is blueberries. 3 days later, Sol 549, the surface soil has changed. Sol 210 and 715: Broken old blueberries? In Curiosity images Sol 746, 1185, 1292 and 1355 there may be something similar to blueberries.

Pinnacle Island - Opportunity Sol 3540

Below is a rock which 'come out of nowhere', Opportunity Sol 3540 - 7.1.2014. Read more about it: The Rock that Appeared Out of Nowhere on Mars . The object was not there in Sol 3528. One option is that when Opportunity went past this place in Sol 3528, the wheel kicked of the stone to its current place. It would be a good theory if it would be a common Mars stone. But things got complicated: Opportunity made a chemical analysis for it. This object has high amounts of sulfur, magnesium and manganese. The chemical composition differs from anything Opportunity had analyzed in past 10 years. Also its appearance and color differs from common Mars stones. Object has been named Pinnacle Island. The Sol 3528 image in low left corner is the sharpest available "before" image. The problem with the 'stone rolled to its place' theories is that there is no debris, scratches or dislocated small stones around this object compared to Sol 3528.

The black and white pictures below are with microscopic camera of this object. There are changes on surface patterns visible in 10 days time in first row. In second row black and white pictures Sol 3541 and 3562 we possibly see three dimensional shape changes in the center( marked with blue circles) during 21 days.

Opportunity investigated this object for 4 weeks. In spite of that NASA has put only few images of microscopic camera of this object to archive.

And Sol 3552-3559 of microscopic imager is missing totally. On 5th of February 2014 the very sharp images below were added afterwards to Sol 3560 archive. Don't we see here very clear microbial growth patterns on the surface of Pinnacle Island? Also the surface structure is interesting. Note that there are no sand grains on surface of this object. Do we see interference patterns in sub image A? Would the structure in sub image B have survived if Opportunity wheel kicked Pinnacle Island from underground?

One proposal for this object has been a composite organism called Apothecia which is a mixture of fungus and cyanobacteria ( Rhawn Joseph 2014: Apothecia on Mars? Life Discovered on the Red Planet). This object would have grown here. In that case we should probably find more of these in image archives. The John Klein site Sol-173 white shape changing objects belong to this category and the Blueberries as well. And more such candidates could be in Curiosity Sol 538 (10.2.2014) and Sol 533 images below. The objects below are about 1 meter distance from each other.

Also Curiosity Sol-395 area is worth of investigating. After investigating Pinnacle Island for 4 weeks NASA gave an official press release that "We have solved this case, Pinnacle Island is just a rock". I am sorry that I have to disagree. The reason should be obvious when You study the Microscopic imager images of Pinnacle Island. And more reasons I handle later.

In figure below is more candidates for fungi and lichens. In Sol 617 images K1..K5 there is yellow color (not covered so much by red dust) small objects in same area. In K-4 image there is 2 objects. The shape of Sol 617 X-5 object resembles Pinnacle island, covered by red dust. The shape of X-5 is also similar to K-4 upper object. In Curiosity Sol-647 image there is this nice greenish object in middle of red dust covered landscape. The Sol 173 has small yellow tone round objects on the stone. They have similarities with Spirit Sol 822 white objects.

Disappearing white objects

Below left, Curiosity Sol 173. There is something white under a 'stone' at John Klein site. On right 19 Mars days later, sol 192, the white objects are away.

There are 2 Mast Camera images of the objects in Sol-173, with 46 seconds difference. Interesting question is that why there is no traces left of these objects in Sol 192 ? For objects A and B it is possible to set a symmetry plane. And it is good to know that about 2 meters to the right from this place is a underground hole which shown later in this article in figure 13.5. In black and white navigation camera image it may be possible to say: the objects are not there 9 hours before in Sol 172. And that they are not there 8 minutes later, Sol 173 01:19:02 UTC.

You may have a question that can some of Sol-173 objects be produced by frozen water or carbon dioxide ice? The temperature in the equator area where Curiosity and Opportunity are moving is on day +20 degrees Celsius and on night -80. The freezing point of carbon dioxide ice is -79 degrees Celsius in Earth pressure. And in low atmospheric pressure of Mars the freezing point is even lower. So it cannot be carbon dioxide ice. Could this be frozen water? Curiosity observed 2-3 percent of water in the soil (locally even 6 percent). The salty water in low pressure of Mars is in liquid state in temperature range -70 degrees Celsius to +10 degrees Celsius. But if this would be frozen water, then there should be these white objects a lot in images of Mars rovers. But that is not the case now. Also the shape of the Sol-173 objects is such that I cannot imagine them to be snow or ice. There is another disappearing white object in Sol-528 and 530 images below, where the object can be seen in Sol-528 image and it is not there anymore in Sol-530.