To answer Robert Crawley's indignant question: I put Horvath's hypothesis about algal mats on Mars at the very end of my lengthy article because it sems to be considered extremely unlikely by the scientific community in general -- the surface of Mars is a very nasty environment for any kind of living things, there are (as I said) all sorts of plausible non-organic explanations, and the evidence Horvath provided for their being algal mats rather than simple patterns of defrosting was (as I pointed out) so thin that even a non-scientist can see holes in it. If he turns out to be correct, I'll hvae an awful lot of crow to eat -- but the odds are extremely strong that I am correct. The best way to double-check on the hypothesis would be simply to take near-IR spectra of the dark areas -- which should be able to clearly detect chlorophyll or any other organic substances in them, as well as detecting water frost and CO2 frost, and identifying different types of minerals (sulfates?) that may exist in the dunes. The "OMEGA" near-IR spectrometer on Mars Express -- which has a top resolution of several hundred meters -- may well be able to do the job adequately, since some of the dark areas are over a kilometer across. If it doesn't, the much higher-resolution near-IR spectrometer planned for the 2005 U.S. orbiter should certainly be able to do so. One other note: how much has the contrast been cranked up in the released MGS photos beyond that which would be seen by the naked eye, in order to bring out detail? It may be that these "dark" spots aren't nearly as dramatically dark-looking as they appear in the photos (as is the explanation for the famous "White Rock", which isn't nearly that white). Finally, I got the following message yesterday. Mr. Orme has indeed discovered a long parade of strange-looking -- and often eerily beautiful -- patterns of light and dark networks in Mars' polar areas, including the picture reprinted by Skipper http://members.nbci.com/marsattack/six/objects26.htm ). Many whitish lines as thin-looking as those in the Skipper photo exist in all sorts of non-radial patterns, as well as a few other radial patterns like those in the Skipper photo -- leaving no doubt that we're looking at some sort of frost-connected phenomenon, which may be running along the crests of dunes in many cases. There are also some equally thready -- and sometimes radial -- DARK "threads". I have no doubt that we're looking at seasonal meteorological phenomena, although they're completely non-Earthly and maybe quite complex in nature. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Saturday, June 23, 2001 3:46 AM Subject: M0804688 >Dear Mr. Moomaw, > I recently noticed some questions about a photo M0804688. I >actually was the one who discovered this and have put together a web >site of many like it at: > >http://members.nbci.com/marsattack/six/default.htm > > You will notice the site contains no comments at all about the >photos, and only points out examples of them. I don't know what they >are, but believe like many a biological model is a possibility. I am >writing a paper on the subject with a geologist Peter Ness which we >hope to submit very soon. In this we describe many possible inorganic >models, with some mention of biological theories for the sake of >completeness. > Some points in favour of a biological model are that these areas >appear to be above zero degrees celsius for much of the summer, the >spiders seem to wither away or at least not be visible in winter, and >they may exhibit fibonacci like branching like plants do on earth. > Other than that, who knows? > > == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/