• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Why I believe NASA has released the first picture of an alien jelly donut

Status
Not open for further replies.

Joey Fox

Self-Actualized Member
First, the story:

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/nasa-says-doughnut-rock-on-mars-is-like-nothing-weve-ever-seen-before-29931351.html

1M8GlAF.jpg


Experts said they were “completely confused” by both the origins and makeup of the object, which is currently being investigated by Opportunity’s various measuring instruments.

Astronomers noticed the new rock had “appeared” without any explanation on an outcrop which had been empty just days earlier. The rover has been stuck photographing the same region of Mars for more than a month due to bad weather, with scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California monitoring the images it sends.

Nasa issued a Mars status report entitled “encountering a surprise”, and lead Mars Exploration rover scientist Steve Squyres told a JPL event it seems the planet literally “keeps throwing new things at us”.

He said the images, from 12 Martian days apart, were from no more than a couple of weeks ago. “We saw this rock just sitting here. It looks white around the edge in the middle and there’s a low spot in the centre that’s dark red – it looks like a jelly doughnut.

“And it appeared, just plain appeared at that spot – and we haven’t ever driven over that spot.”

Squyres said his team had two theories on how the rock got there – that there’s “a smoking hole in the ground somewhere nearby” and it was caused by a meteor, or that it was “somehow flicked out of the ground by a wheel” as the rover went by.

“We had driven a metre or two away from here, and I think the idea that somehow we mysteriously flicked it with a wheel is the best explanation,” Squyres said.

Yet the story got even stranger when Opportunity investigated further. Squyres explained: “We are as we speak situated with the rover’s instruments deployed making measurements of this rock.

“We’ve taken pictures of both the doughnut and jelly parts, and the got the first data on the composition of the jelly yesterday.

“It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” he said. “It’s very high in sulphur, it’s very high in magnesium, it’s got twice as much manganese as we’ve ever seen in anything on Mars.

My reasoning for this likely being life:

1. NASA describes the substance as being a jelly. I challenge anyone to find a jelly-like substance on Earth that is not derived from life. My search of Wikipedia finds the different types of jellies:

Jelly may refer to:
Jelly (fruit preserves), a clear or translucent fruit spread or preserve
Gelatin, a translucent substance extracted from the collagen inside animals' connective tissue, made from bones and pig skin
Gelatin dessert, referred to as jelly in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other countries
Jelly fungus, the class Heterobasidiomycetes
Jelly shoes, shoes made of a soft plastic, resembling sandals
Naval jelly, phosphoric acid in a rust removing gel
Petroleum jelly, a gel used as a topical ointment, such as vaseline
Royal jelly, made by bees and fed to the larvae to turn them into queen bees
Temazepam, a powerful hypnotic drug, street name "Jellies"
Jellyfish, also known as jellies
An informal, temporary Coworking gathering, also called "jellies"
A slang term for Jealous

All of these things, as far as I can tell are derived from life. I'm not 100% sure on Naval jelly, but it appears to be made by humans. It's not something that you would find under a rock in the desert.

2. The jelly is high in manganese. That piqued my interest. My quick research found a research article titled "Manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis before the rise of cyanobacteria". http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/06/20/1305530110.abstract

This jelly is supposedly underneath the rock, but I'm not sure what evidence NASA has of that. The thing appeared out of nowhere, after all.

So what am I missing, Science-GAF? Why are there no articles claiming or debating that this jelly is a lifeform?
 
So what am I missing, Science-GAF? Why are there no articles claiming or debating that this jelly is a lifeform?

Because the scientists don't believe it's a life form, probably just a thing that got stuck in a wheel. Mars is dead
 
There is not enough information to draw any conclusions yet. The object is strange enough that it merits further investigation, and that is what NASA is there for.
 

Quackula

Member
The time to believe an extraordinary claim is after you have the evidence supporting it.

"I don't know what that is" does not mean that you get to fill in that gap with whatever pleases you.
 

cameron

Member
1. NASA describes the substance as being a jelly. I challenge anyone to find a jelly-like substance on Earth that is not derived from life. My search of Wikipedia finds the different types of jellies:

The 'jelly' bit is just describing the appearance of the object. It looks like a jelly donut.
 

Riggs

Banned
GAF does not believe in the truth OP. We know it's out there. One day we will be vindicated.

I am being serious btw.
 

subrock

Member
Yup, jelly doughnut is what they said when estimating the size of it, so there are sticking with that nomenclature in ongoing investigation. It's a rock.
 

Flo_Evans

Member
What if we find massive jelly deposits under the martian surface?

THERE'S A WHOLE OCEAN OF JELLY UNDER OUR FEET! NO ONE CAN GET AT IT EXCEPT FOR ME!!!
 

terrisus

Member
“We saw this rock just sitting here. It looks white around the edge in the middle and there’s a low spot in the centre that’s dark red – it looks like a jelly doughnut.

They said it looks like a doughnut
(Jelly doughnut because those don't have holes in the middle, and are powdered, and the center is dark red).

So they're just extending the simile:
Doughnut = Outside of rock
Jelly = Inside of rock

you just sound jelly

Or this.
Scientists are jelly.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom