The "wood on Mars"

TYWKIWDBI is nothing if not reality-based (although we do occasionally venture into the world of politics). Nevertheless, I didn't want to let this photo pass unblogged. It's a NASA photo from the Mars Rover project (and it enlarges nicely to fullscreen when you click on it).

The photo was released in 2004 but earlier this month it swept the internet accompanied by allegations that the long dark object is a piece of wood. Or a railroad tie. Or petrified wood.

The lead scientist from the Mars Rover camera team explains the image thus:

"What you're seeing is a piece of flat, platy, layered sulfur-rich outcrop rock like we've seen almost everywhere the Opportunity rover has been in Meridiani Planum... Sometimes, like in this case, those flat, platy rocks have been tilted or dislodged, this one probably from the forces associated with the huge impact crater that formed nearby."

"And this one's being viewed edge-on. That edge-on view, combined with the layered nature of these rocks in general gives the surface a sort of grainy texture. So, indeed, it looks like a wooden plank on Mars."

Personally, I think it looks like a piece of wood. And if I'm following those tracks correctly, the Rover must have driven right over the wood. Probably trying to destroy the evidence.