Opportunity's Curious Rind Feature

Opportunity's Curious Rind Feature
Unusual object is clearly more than a mineral form

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New findings in my book - at least 17 rind features

The Sol 668 panoramic images show many views of the same scenes, apparently made to compare over time while looking for changes. This appears to be a part of the search for water evidence, in my opinion. However, this feature appeared that indicates to us that more than simple geology is taking place on Mars.

If we look at this panoramic image from Sol 668, we see a great deal of small litter in the image. One object immediately stands out to the eye. I have circled it in red here. The original image is here at the NASA/JPL web site.
Here is the object magnified and assembled into a stereo pair (cross-eyed type) using L2 and R2 images. It appears to be similar to a rind or a segment of a hollow object. The outside is apparently a flattened sphere shape (an oblate spheroid in technical terms) while the interior is a prolate spheroid (stretched sphere).
After looking at the stereo view and how the light and shadows fell on it, I created a solid model using a computer rendering program. This is a pair of views of the shape and it also successfully duplicates the surface specular reflection properties and roughness to a good degree of accuracy. This is the proper shape of the object in question,. The most important question remaining is this: what is it? It is clearly a smooth, uniform segment of a hollow object. The edges are sharp and clean and the interior is extremely uniform, almost as if polished. Is this the shell of some organism or the husk of some seed?
Here is a false color image of the object. The colors are from L2, L4, and L7. The clearly uniform interior and exterior are apparent. This is more than just a rock.

Whatever this object is, it clearly is not some randomly eroded rock fragment. Nor is this a geode, which probably exist on Mars, but would not fracture into such perfect, straight cleavage faces. This object shows a uniform exterior and interior, yet is not of artificial origin. Biology seems to be the only satisfactory explanation.

The rover spent a great deal of time in this area. Using the Navigation images, I have determined that Opportunity was on site from Sol 651 until Sol 701. This is 51 sols of image and science data for this one spot. During this time, multiple images from various angles and cameras were taken over most of the spectrum that the rover can image.

During this period of time, no significant changes occurred to this or other features in the images. Comparing features in the images, I estimate that this object is roughly 3 centimeters in length (just over an inch). I have assembled an excellent stereo anaglyph in the shortest spectrum (L7) and it shows some interesting features. The object is blue-gray like most of the fossils. I suspect that it is a portion of a broken pentramite (a type of blastoid). Look at this image and you can see why.

This is a cross-eyed stereo pair that shows a great deal more detail. This is through the L7 and R1 filters and was made on Sol 660 through the panoramic cameras. This is enlarged to 160%. It clearly shows that the end nearest the camera is thicker, just as a sea shell would be. Also, note that shells in contact with iron oxides often become blue-gray in color. And, these are crystallized calcium sulfate, not calcium carbonate like terrestrial sea shells.
I have prepared an anaglyph as well. This uses red over the left eye (like most standard anaglyphs). Next to it is a false color image from the same data using filters L2, L5, and L7.

New Finding

Could this be the mystery rind object?

I located this in the Sol 056 Opportunity images. It appears to be a sea shell fragment or something similar. It is almost exactly the same as the rind object, but it is much smaller. Note that it has the same cuplike shape, the same thickness of the one end, the same point on the other end. This would be powerful evidence that these objects grow in size, something that a mineral form could not possibly do. This object is roughly 4.5 millimeters in length.

The original image of this object is here at the NASA/JPL web site.

A Third Rind Found

This was found by Spirit on the other side of the planet, early on at Sol 029. The far right of this false color image shows another exact duplicate of this odd object. Only L4 and L7 data are available.

There are other anomalies in this image as well. See the hollow pentagon shaped stone to the left? Above it is another object with 5 sided symmetry- these are the hallmarks of biology.

So what is the rind? I cannot say except that it does resemble a fragment of a sea shell or some other biological form.

The original image of this object is located here at the NASA/JPL web site.

A Fourth Rind Found

This is found in panoramic images from Spirit, Sol 770. It shows the precise structure of the previous objects and is sideways. Here is the original color image (click for a large version). The original image data is here on the NASA/JPL web site.
This thumbnail view shows the closer detail of this object. It is very clearly identical to the other objects. Some process is producing these features many times and in different areas.

By using data from L7 and R1, I created this stereo view that also confirms its structure as being identical to the other rind features.

Fifth Rind Object Found

Opportunity, Sol 811, another excellent find. This is a smaller rind object but clearly the same shape. This specimen is broken but the concave shape and thick rind is obvious.

The original microscopic image data is here at the NASA/JPL web site.

Sixth and Seventh Rind Objects Found

These are located at the edge of Victoria Crater. This is a false color image from L2, L5, and L7. To the left of the frame there are two rind objects. This image is from Sol 973. The original images are here at the NASA/JPL web site.
Here is the close up color view showing the two rinds very clearly. The left one is much thicker and appears to show some dark openings or pores on its edge, similar to the markings on the Sol 056 microscopic rind image. This pair brings the total to six and seven rind objects.

Eighth Rind Object Found

The eighth such object is from Opportunity, Sol 986 and is very clear from its angle and location. It can be seen at the bottom of the image frame and at the top of a second set, so two very good image sets of it exist. The images are available here and here at the NASA/JPL web site.
This close up view shows a little more detail, but it is clear that this object is concave and shaped precisely like the other rind features, although it might be foreshortening that makes it appear to be of a broader angle.

In short, we have 8 mystery objects that are clearly worthy of investigation, but none are being discussed or even noticed by NASA. These appear to be of biological origin, since no known geological process could produce these wedge shaped concave objects, and certainly not of such uniformity. They appear to be like a husk or rind of something, but they might also be sections of some sort of sea shell.

CLICK HERE for a large composite image of eight rind objects.