Rosetta Spacecraft Spots 'Pyramid' Boulder on Comet

Discussion in 'Science and Technology' started by Dryson, Oct 13, 2014.

  1. Dryson

    Dryson Commodore Commodore

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    Rosetta Spacecraft Spots 'Pyramid' Boulder on Comet

    The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft has sent home several spectacular images that show a large pyramid-shaped boulder studding the surface of its target comet.
    Rosetta mission team members have named the 82-foot-tall (25 meters) boulder on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko "Cheops," after the largest pyramid in Egypt's famous Giza complex. The rock is much smaller than its namesake, however, which rises 456 feet (139 m) into the Egyptian sky.

    http://www.space.com/27420-rosetta-spacecraft-comet-boulder-photos.html

    I don't think that the triangular boulder is natural as there is not any wind on the comet to shape it in such a manner.
     
  2. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Yes, and wind is the only way to shape rock formations which is why all rocky surfaces in space that do not have atmospheres are perfectly smooth.

    So clearly this meaningless rock amongst a belt of billions of the things in a solar system with four rocky planets in it, one of which (maybe two) capable of harboring life (to speak nothing of the rocky/solid moons in the system some of which may harbor life) was visited by alien Myans or Egyptians so they could make these sorta pyramidal formations.

    That or it's a rock that happens to have a meaningful shape when observed the right way.
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2014
  3. { Emilia }

    { Emilia } Cute but deadly Moderator

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    You're acting like it's a perfect pyramid when in reality it's just a rock of a slightly similar shape.
     
  4. YellowSubmarine

    YellowSubmarine Vice Admiral Admiral

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    What origin do you suggest it has?
     
  5. Timelord Victorious

    Timelord Victorious Vice Admiral Admiral

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    My time machine works! It's the nineties again, when thousands of people became convinced a couple of rock formations casting a peculiar shadow were a pyramid an a face on the surface of Mars!

    Though Zak McCracken was a damn good game! :)
     
  6. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    It's obviously a sign left by the 13th tribe of Kobol.
     
  7. Silvercrest

    Silvercrest Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Oh, you do not want to go there.
     
  8. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Actually there's plenty of wind on comets. They're objects composed of frozen gases that vaporize and blow outward from inside the comet when it's heated by the Sun. And what do you call an envelope of gases around an astronomical object? An atmosphere. An atmosphere that's constantly moving as it outgasses and escapes into space. So yeah, it's tenuous, but there's wind.

    Anyway, if you call that rock triangular, I suggest you get your eyes checked. It's clearly a pretty random agglomeration of smaller bits in a pretty random shape. It's far rougher than the surface it's resting on, and thus far less shaped by erosion -- more likely made of harder material, I'd guess a chunk of rock originally embedded in ice and now brought to the surface as the ice sublimated away. And since the shadow is evidently stretched out by the angle of the sunlight, the actual rock itself is bound to be flatter than the shape of the shadow. It's just a rock.
     
  9. HIjol

    HIjol Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Too Late!

    Wait, I saw this movie! Sinese, Cheadle, "Trip to Mars"?... "Mission to Mars"? there were hydroponcis...some shit...jeez,. I can't...
     
  10. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Mission to Mars where Gary Sinise goes to live with aliens who've been hiding out on Mars for eons, their space-ship buried under dirt/sand/soil/debris of the "face on Mars" formation. And now the terrible memories of that terrible movie come flooding back to me.

    What gets me is that a trip to Mars has a lot of potential in it as a dramatic story, we're talking about a trip that'd take the better part of two years, survival on a planet that's not entirely hospitable to human life for the better part of two years and then a RETURN trip that'd take the better part of two years.

    Granted, the movie wouldn't need to focus on the return trip and I'm not saying that such a story would need to get into the mundane details of them doing thermal rolls in the space craft, or collecting rock and soil samples on the planet, but the length of time for the voyage, the risks and hostile environments that need to be managed. There's a lot of potential in a good, solid, story about a manned-trip to Mars that doesn't need to involve ancient aliens or the planet suddenly having a breathable atmosphere because of bacterial life in the ground or whatever.
     
  11. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    And "comets seeded the primordial Earth's oceans," right? All the press releases say so. We've visited half a dozen comets close up, and none of them have upheld Whipple's "dirty snowball" hypothesis. In fact these hot, dry rocks are as dark as asphalt and display sharp, chiseled surfaces that look nothing like melting ice. Oh, I forgot, the volatiles that have not been found on the surface are actually lurking beneath the rocky surface. Either that, or we're bucking tremendous odds by running into comets that are all exceptions to the norm.

    There are alternative hypotheses that fit all the facts. Even if one is not swayed by the new model, one should be aware of the flaws in establishment mantra.
     
  12. Ar-Pharazon

    Ar-Pharazon Admiral Premium Member

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    Only the shadow is pyramid shaped. Depending on the angle of the light source, the shadow could be any shape.
     
  13. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    You do understand that any ice on the surface of the comet would have long ago sublimated away? The comets we've encountered are the norm.
     
  14. YellowSubmarine

    YellowSubmarine Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Not only that but, a shadow cannot possibly be pyramid-shaped, because it is a two-dimensional surface projection of... Unless...

    Holy shit... There is a pyramid-shaped shadow on the comet? That could only mean there is a fourth dimension!
     
  15. Ar-Pharazon

    Ar-Pharazon Admiral Premium Member

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    If it was the Fifth Dimension, we could hear Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.
     
  16. JES

    JES Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Doesn't look very impressive to me. It looks nothing like the pyramids of Mars, or anything like that. Just a rough boulder. I've love for it to be an artifact to be explored, or for NASA conspiracy theorists to speculate, but nope, not this time!

    Now the face and pyramid of Mars of the Cydonia region, now that still captures my imagination! So yeah, lets get back to that, because there is most certainly nothing to see here.

    Besides, what kind of crazy schmuck would want to build a structure on a comet, which is probably going to get itself pulverized sooner or later, huh?!
     
  17. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    There's nothing to see in the Cydonia region of Mars either, except natural formations.
     
  18. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Ah, I see. We've found no ice, but there was ice because theory demands it. Did you bother to watch the documentary at all? Or did you simply find it easier to parrot the officially approved story?

    Perhaps you'd be kind enough to explain the many comets seen to be active in the outer Solar system:

    Or perhaps you could explain the findings of the Stardust mission which found crystalline materials (pigeonite, olivine) requiring intense heat, and—paradoxically—compounds that form only in the presence of liquid water. In short, comets do not appear to be fossils from the earliest days of the Solar system, clumps of material that stuck together under weak gravity. Instead, comets appear to be debris from a planetary surface.

    Again, ignore any alternative model because I know how frightening that can be. Just evaluate the data which conflicts with the "dirty snowball" idea, and perhaps explain it.
     
  19. Stoo

    Stoo Commodore Commodore

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    I didn't bother watching a 90 minute documentary myself. If comets are hot dry rocks, what's their coma\tail made of? And why do you think Hale-bopp is still active?
     
  20. Gov Kodos

    Gov Kodos Admiral Admiral

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    Sung by Mathilda May.
    1) Carbon Monoxide, mostly. As for the rest of the ice, ice doesn't have to be water ice, all sorts of things freeze in the depths of space.
    2) Mathilda May and her space ship need the thing.