Mars is SO COOL!!!

Ever since my very first post, I've been wanting to talk more about science and how badass it truly is. I'm still trying to find a good way to do it more regularly, but this is something I didn't feel could wait. Look at this:



What you're looking at, originally sourced from NASA, and lovingly ripped off directly from Io9 (sorry), is a picture of the SURFACE OF MARS!!!

It's from the camera on the Opportunity rover. This is a thing that is millions of miles away, on the surface of another planet. And no, it did not line up those rocks itself. The real crux of the story is that the rocks are theorized to contain phyllosilicates. I'll forego the giant explanation that I don't even completely understand myself but the point is that if it's true, then it really points to the idea that Mars really did have water...and water that was closer to what we have here on Earth than we formerly thought. This is a big deal. The formation is being referred to as "Homestake" or "The Vein". I would suppose the fact that it's in a straight line would be due to movement of water? Still, I looked at that picture, and I could only think of ONE possible explanation for why it would look like that. So I did a little digging (get it?) and uncovered the REAL image that NASA doesn't want you to see. The exclusive to Fruitless Pursuits REAL reason is after the jump:



If you can get access to a powerful enough telescope, and get a look at the surface of Mars, in the rover's approximate location, the following image appears:



I'll accompany it with this "seemingly unrelated" other image from the rover:



Yes, I did all this for an Atomic Robo joke. And not even a really good one. Because I have an illness. Somebody stop me. (and yes, I even dug out my own copy of the comic to scan in the images)

Still, it's some pretty cool science all on its own! Here's the original Io9 article, with some ACTUAL science in it even!