The following NASA information casts some doubt about the nature of
the "bugs" on Mars. The substrate for the Sol 123 photos in question
is magnetic. The orange rocks are magnetic. The "bugs legs" may be
magnetic dust attracted in filament form. I don't know what would
explain the spade like "tails" that stick up occasionally though.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/press/
StrongMagPart.html
http://tinyurl.com/3gsp6b
Background information:
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Stunning animated life on mars - in color no less:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hortonheardawho/2899678725/sizes/o/
http://tinyurl.com/3oqhvk
Source of the above color information is composited from NASA Phoenix
Sol 123 photos by "hortonheardawho" in this blog:
http://www.marsroverblog.com/dyn/entry/70561/discussion_page/381
http://tinyurl.com/4csbhh
If you look carefully you can see the little moving brown/orange things
appear to have very thin straight short legs or protrusions on their
sides located low and almost horizontally. A couple of them
momentarily show spade tipped protrusions, maybe tails or probosci?
If you use full screen mode you can see the same features in the
looped movie
I made from other NASA photos and which is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O68Xop-WpM
http://tinyurl.com/4qzcl8
The above movie was made from NASA Sol 112 photos, at rotational
position 6134 however.
Another Mars “bug” caught in motion in these NASA Phoenix Sol 123
photos at rotational position 14071, near hortonheardawho's color
composites:
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=36456&cID=321
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=36497&cID=321
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=36498&cID=321
I have animated the above in a loop in a video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb_aNjkHlSc
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
