BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 12:06 PM

Thanks Charley,

That's very interesting - so, presumably, all the rocks on Mercury have a chance of getting nice and toasty at some point (?)

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 04:55 PM

Shimrod-

No, more current observations confirm that Mercury does rotate, though slowly as it orbits the sun:

"Spin–orbit resonance

After one orbit, Mercury has rotated 1.5 times, so after two complete orbits the same hemisphere is again illuminated.

For many years it was thought that Mercury was synchronously tidally locked with the Sun, rotating once for each orbit and keeping the same face directed towards the Sun at all times, in the same way that the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth.
However, radar observations in 1965 proved that the planet has a 3:2 spin–orbit resonance, rotating three times for every two revolutions around the Sun; the eccentricity of Mercury's orbit makes this resonance stable—at perihelion, when the solar tide is strongest, the Sun is nearly still in Mercury's sky. The original reason astronomers thought it was synchronously locked was that whenever Mercury was best placed for observation, it was always at the same point in its 3:2 resonance, hence showing the same face. Due to Mercury's 3:2 spin–orbit resonance, a solar day (the length between two meridian transits of the Sun) lasts about 176 Earth days. A sidereal day (the period of rotation) lasts about 58.7 Earth days."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 01:09 PM

From memory, Charley, I think that it keeps one face to the Sun - could be wrong there but I'm too lazy to look it up as well!

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 09:41 PM

Shimrod-

I'm with you! How about some creatures with foot-long eyestalks, antennas, and razor sharp incisors?

I suppose on a planet such as Mercury they would be restricted to the narrow band between where it's unbearably hot and where it's unbearable cold. Anyone have a clue how Mercury rotates? Is it tilted on its axis? Is its orbit symetrical with regard to the sun?

Charley Noble, too lazy to look

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 05:08 PM

At the end of the day it's just more geology. The Solar System, inevitably, has a surfeit of geology. It is a big Solar system - so I suppose some mildly unusual geology is bound to show up, now and again, but, when you get down to it, it's just rocks.

What I want to see are creatures! Some extraterrestrial bacteria would do at a pinch ...

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 10:51 PM

Ya mean all them kwoetashuns from them sighentits is just a bunch o'hooey?

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 10:38 PM

John-

An excellent explanation of the fun one can have confusing people (and students) with aerial photography and satillite imagery. We had even more fun switching stereo pairs in field classes and asking why rivers were evidently flowing along ridges instead of in valleys.

I am also fascinated by your speculation on the Mercurians, and their underground civilization. I wonder if they are related to the mole people, whom I last encountered as a teenager in some run-down cinema (one critic described that adventure film as "moving along with the speed of the digestive tract with similar results").

The more I study this recent image from Mercury, the more I'm struck with how similar it appears to a Caribbean sandcrab burrow, the radiating trails are obviously created as they haul out and dispose of the debris from their subterranian engineering efforts.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 02:35 PM

Charley -

People will see concave/convex structure more clearly if the lighting is from a direction that seems "normal," and in this case the appearance more closely - as I saw it - matched the description if the image is turned 180 degrees.

The article at the link, with the picture, proclaimed this to be something "really strange."

Especially since satellite imagery became common, but even long before that with moon and planet photos, people have been distributing "weird photos" and proclaiming them to be new discoveries, and news reporters have been taking the bait - for several decades now.

Even low-ranking troops who may have occasion to see tactical image-maps from aerial photographs or satellite imaging have been taught to rotate them before jumping to conclusions; but that training may not have reached the media. (Maybe it's a secret we shouldn't discuss?)

Others may differ, but it seems to me that this one doesn't look at all strange if it's flopped to another orientation.

There's a central "hole" that looks like a typical impact crater, with a shallow depression surrounding the crater. The "lines" look like erosion tracks that could have been caused by "something" sliding down the slope, or by gas/dirt ejected from the impact point at the time of impact.

The shallow crater surrounding the impact "bullet hole" does, obviously, suggest that the Mercurians live in elaborate underground caverns, with the milder slope being the sinkhole that happened when the impacting (meteorite?) punctured the roof of their underground city. As the sinkhole depression is fairly large, this particular impact probably happened to hit their arena where they have the lizard fights, or perhaps a parking lot where they park their magleve turbo transporters when they go shopping. Depressions of this kind probably would be rare, as an underground civilization likely would have quickly learned to avoid large-area roof structures for reasons of safety and convenience in construction, except when there was an important public need for an unusual construction.

The erosion trails might be the result of material they ejected to the surface, rolling into the depression, when they made a replacement excavation or during repairs to the original collapsed area.

We do have a couple of regulars who appear to communicate regularly with extraterrestrials, so maybe we should suggest that they ask about it at their next visit. Even if their regular correspondent(s) aren't actually from there, they may have visited since the event.

John

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 12:43 PM

John-

Is your comment relevant to whether the image portrays a structure which appears concave or convex?

Whatever the structure is it appears manifest in many other images taken earlier of Mercury.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 04:06 AM

It's much less mysterious looking if you rotate the picture at the link 180 degrees, to the conventional view with the light source coming from the top instead of from the bottom.

It's not "something never seen before in the universe" when viewed properly; although some thought is needed as to whether it's consistent with what we think we know about Mercury.

John

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 12:19 AM

'Cause His Mercury's Got A Hole In It
Yea! His Merc's Got A Hole In It
Yea! His Merc's Got A Hole In It
And his feet ain't dry!

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 10:06 PM

My friend Bob had a Mercury that holes in the floor. Riding in it was a challenge, especially in wet weather.

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 08:15 PM

You guys are absolutely shameless. I once had a Mercury with a hole in it,too.

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 07:12 PM

Perhaps the Lone Ranger lives there: "Quick, Silver!"

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 06:00 PM

Maybe it needed its hole wormed...*groan*

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 03:12 PM

Or too much -- unnecessary roughage.

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 03:04 PM

Whatever it was, there wasn't enough roughage.

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 01:51 PM

Might have involved atomic piles.

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 01:41 PM

Spaw et al-

I should have specified what the core of this planet is composed of. It's obviously mercury, which helps explain why some of it might splash and ooze when the surface was struck by a major "hemorrhoid."

Are there "hemorrhoids" loose in the solar system smashing into plants and moons? I'm only trained as a geographer/geologist. We didn't learn much about what's going on in the heavens.

Of course, it's also conceivable that Mercury was struck by a giant kohlrabi.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 10:43 AM

You should have said "hemorrhoid" instead and maybe you'd have triggered more interest. Especially effective if you'd used it to begin with as in, "I suppose when some major hemorrhoid slams into a planet with a massive metal core, that some of the inside "juice" might splash or ooze out......."

Now an oozing hemorrhoid with a metal core.........that's something to continue discussing!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 10:43 AM

Quick! Get a defibrillator and a CPR-provider to Mercury! We can save it if we hurry!

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 10:41 AM

1-2-3-breath-1-2-3-breath....there's life in it still, Charley!

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 09:39 AM

I've killed another thread! That makes 30 for the year.

And it's all mine.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Feb 08 - 10:32 AM

Make that "asteroid"!

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Feb 08 - 10:30 AM

Kendall-

It's a giant armor-plated sandcrab.

I suppose when some major astroid slams into a planet with a massive metal core, that some of the inside "juice" might splash or ooze out and form a signature like that.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: kendall
Date: 01 Feb 08 - 07:43 AM

It would have to be nasty to tolerate that temperature of 800 degrees F.

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 01 Feb 08 - 03:21 AM

Them ain't "tire tracks". There's something really nasty lives in that crater, and goes out every night to hunt.

Subject: RE: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Jan 08 - 02:23 PM

Oh, heck, that's just an aerial photo of what was originally a great big rock festival and tire tracks going to and from it.

Subject: BS: A Spider on Mercury (NASA photo)
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Jan 08 - 02:20 PM

Thought this was really interesting: CLick Here for story about new pix from Mercury.