What is this?
Is it a forest on Mars!?

Originally posted by blue bird on 7-4-2007(ID:3097743)

*** photo taken by MOC (Mars Orbiter Camera), a satellite for photographical mapping of Mars that, at latitude -82.02°, longitude 284.38° (near to the Martian south pole) has filmed something totally incredible, but still neglected: it's some form of vegetation on Mars.

Look for yourself!
 

Credit: Malin Space Systems

Malin Space Systems Image; S0600607

Malin Space Systems Image; S0600607.gif
(this is View full-size image, processed but NOT map-projected lossless GIF, best quality, slow download)

Mars Anomaly Research; Forest-Life-Biodiversity

More Trees...
 

Credit: Malin Space Systems

Pegasus Report: Trees on Mars?
Added by Pegasus... this is our page on the Martian Trees with comparisons from the Ikonos Satelte of trees on Earth...

MMM Group; Forest on Mars?
( great analysis by M. Elviro with enlarged images )

Do you have any idea what it could be?

This guy Elviro already compared it with desert area of Australia!?

Desert of Australia:

Area on Mars:

Some of those images I would make out to be shadows of rock formations, however I am a bit intrigued by the rest. I live around plenty of sage brush, but that looks a bit larger than the usual sage brush around here, although I've seen them grow up to 10 feet wide and 6 feet tall on occassion. If it were a lifeform it wouldn't be a plant like that on earth. I don't want to fuel the radical idea of organic life existing on Mars right now though, there must be another explaination to determine this. Has there been any attempts by NASA or other scientific organizations to explain these odd formations in these photographs?
 

Was this crazy and brilliant and somewhat on eccentric side - this Percival LOWELL onto something with his theory of vegetation on Mars ( and canals... remember) and strange artificially looking glass 'tubes' and now - this new images of 'holes' on Mars.

Strange is the fact that he, from his Observatory in flagstaff (Arizona), during his 8 last years of life, was in search for "planet x" - and was convinced there is a planet beyond Neptune - and years after ('30) Pluto was found.

Seriously...dunno - 'forest' or not - this image resembled some kind of 'life'. It would be very helpful if we can determine what the sun angle was in time images were taken - that way would be easy to measure the height of this 'trees' !?

Even Arthur C. CLARKE thinks it is some kind of vegetation :

External Source

Speaking from his home in Sri Lanka, Clarke informed the crowd that the images he'd downloaded from NASA's Web site showed something growing on the planet's surface. "I'm quite serious when I say I have a really good look at these new Mars images," Clarke said. "Something is actually moving and changing with the seasons that suggests, at least, vegetation."

Clearly, Clarke is no wild eccentric; he invented the concept of satellite broadcasting and was knighted by the Queen of England. What caught his eye is a genuine enigma: a forest of large round blobs with branchlike structures that visibly expand and shrink over the seasons, which Clarke said looked like "banyan trees."
 

Banyan Tree

quote: Originally posted by uberarcanist
Well, earth plants, sure, Xtal. There was a long period of Earth's history when it was teaming with life but also oxygen-poor.

Yes..... could that be some ancient STROMATOLITES ( found on Earth) responsible for producing oxygen !?

"Prior to 2.4 billion years ago, the earth's atmosphere was rich in carbon dioxide. However, the Precambrian air lacked the oxygen that sustains the complex multicellular life that has evolved since the "Cambrian explosion" 540 million years ago. Stromatolites in the fossil record decline sharply in both diversity and number during the late Proterozoic eon, although they are present, but not common, in Paleozoic era strata. Today, stromatolites are quite uncommon in marine environments. As a result, they have become valuable "living fossils."

SOURCE: Wikipedia

Stromatolites on Earth;
 

Modern Stromatolites in Shark Bay, Western Australia

Regarding oxygen:

"While prokaryotic cyanobacteria themselves reproduce asexually through cell division, they were instrumental in priming the environment for the evolutionary development of more complex eukaryotic organisms. Cyanobacteria are thought to be largely responsible for increasing the amount of oxygen in the primeval earth's atmosphere through their continuing photosynthesis."

"Cyanobacteria use water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight to create their food. The byproducts of this process are oxygen and calcium carbonate (lime). A layer of mucous often forms over mats of cyanobacterial cells. In modern microbial mats, debris from the surrounding habitat can become trapped within the mucous, which can be cemented together by the calcium carbonate to grow thin laminations of limestone. These laminations can accrete over time, resulting in the banded pattern common to stromatolites"

SOURCE: Wikipedia

I found some forest type things too. :) like this one, which to me looked like a snow covered mountain, with meandering river, bordered by stands of pine trees:

An Alpine Vacation...
 

Source image: Malin Space Systems - M0403228

Thank's Undo! :)

And look at this; findings and speculation about the south pole of Mars ( one we are speaking about) : water !?

Editor's Note:
The topics relating to "Water on Mars" are covered in a new section... to continue the water discussions please go to this page:

"CO² VS H²O - Is There Liquid Water on Mars?"

Bingo!! Beth, that pic is on your Alpine Vacation thread. Darn, this forest stuff has already been done to death on ATS!! ...

"Mars: An Alpine Vacation"

Mars 'tree';
 

Image Source

Are these living trees? Arthur C. Clarke said --
"I'm 95% convinced that there's no other conclusion..... I fully agree that this is close to incontrovertible evidence of large present or past 'tree-like' organisms on Mars. I do not believe that these will be explained as 'geological features' or illusions. Only closer-in imaging will decide the matter." - Rest of Article and SOURCE
 

Photo by: Dilip Mehta

Clarke believes plants grow in the Red Planet's southern hemisphere

The Banyan trees of Mars: Sir Arthur C. Clarke's minority view.

"I'm now convinced that Mars is inhabited by a race of demented landscape gardeners," Sir Arthur C. Clarke announced recently. He claims that an image produced by the Mars Global Surveyor satellite shows "large areas of vegetation . . . like banyan trees." Most experts dismiss the idea. But Popular Science loves a free thinker, especially one as talented and charming as Sir Arthur. We questioned him in Sri Lanka via e-mail"...

Rest of Interview and SOURCE: Popular Science

Banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis).

"Large-canopied tree. One planted 200 years ago in the Calcutta Botanic Garden (India) has a crown of average diameter over 430 feet."or 127 meters, more than 1 hectare. One in Sri Lanka covers over 2 acres or 1 hectare - SOURCE
 

This single banyan tree takes up an entire block. Hawaii

Image source: http: Malin Space Systems: M0305635

I am going to repeat something from 1 page - I mentioned Stromatolites which were dominating the Precambrian era on Earth - some of them with biological activity (microorganisms).

Scientist are saying that Precambrian AIR LACKED OXYGEN -which is essential (on Earth at least) for complex organisms ----> such complex life evolved during Cambrian era ('explosion') some 540 M years ago.
 

Image Credit: Columbia U

Astrobiologists who try to track fossils back in time, hoping to find clues to the origin of life, often must end their pursuit at stromatolites. These fossilized structures are the earliest evidence for life on Earth. The oldest stromatolites date back 3.5 billion years. Although there is some controversy about whether these more ancient structures were produced by microbes or by non-biological processes, various lines of evidence suggest they were indeed formed by life.
 - Source