Description: sea urchin
Apparent size: 3 mm
Common features: a perfect five-pointed star can be seen at the apex of the spherule (see stereo view). The cleft is outlined by two rows of identical bumps, and those lines converge on the star.
Detailed View - MER-B Sol 029 Spherule
The original NASA/JPL image link is here
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Description: sea urchin Apparent size: 3 mm Common features: a perfect five-pointed star can be seen at the apex of the spherule (see stereo view). The cleft is outlined by two rows of identical bumps, and those lines converge on the star. |
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| Stacked frames:
none
Enhancement methods: bright/contrast difference anti-shadow |
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Summary description of image contents: this fossil has numerous "plates" and lines that all converge on a single five pointed star. No mineral or crystal in nature forms with five-fold symmetry. Only man-made quasicrystals or biological processes can produce five pointed structures.
Stereo view: Due to the nature of the material, I am including the stereo views on this page..
| This stereo pair shows the
raw image data (no enhancements) assembled to reveal the nature of the
5-pointed star. The glare spot at the apex just occurs on it, but
does not obscure it.
You can clearly make out rows of identical bumps, all of the same size, spacing, and alignment. The "armor plates" fit exactly into the pattern of five-fold symmetry. |
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| This is the spatial
frequency enhanced version of the above image. It reveals more
details of the rows of bumps. In this image, you can see that the
bumps are all identical and in perfectly aligned rows.
You can also see three clefts clearly and a fourth faintly at the top. |
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This is a rotated three dimensional view, made from height-offset images. It shows the organism from a rotated perspective, allowing other features to emerge that we might miss in the original orientation.
Anaglyph view: none