At 23:09:30 UTC the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) has taken this beautiful picture of a Martian rock from a distance of only 6.13 cm and with a definition of 0.029 mm/pixel, thus covering an area of 4.66 cm X 3.47 cm.
Again a rock with holes that, as can be seen from the photo, are oriented extremely differently from each other.
Various theories have been proposed to explain this singular feature recently documented by this page in numerous posts. Among the most popular I would certainly cite the splinters of a meteorite fallen nearby and the detachment or erosion of conglomerates embedded in the rock itself.
Personally I would immediately discard the hypothesis of meteorite splinters because of the different orientation of the holes themselves and the selectivity with which certain types of rocks exhibit this characteristic (mainly stones and pebbles) while others do not (soil and larger rocks clearly of sedimentary origin).
As for the conglomerate theory, this too holds water on all sides. To begin with, it must be emphasized that all the stones that show holes of this kind do not appear to be of sedimentary origin and therefore it is not explained why they should have incorporated the conglomerates that should have been visible in other points of the rocks themselves, while they are totally absent. On the other hand, the surrounding sedimentary rocks, which often also show the presence of conglomerates, do not exhibit this type of hole!
In some photos, especially of Spirit and Opportunity, you can see some hemispherical cavities due to the detachment of the well-known “blueberries” (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_spherules), manganese spheres that were also widely present in the photographed area, while in this case you can not see anything in the immediate vicinity attributable to a conglomerate detached.
So what remains?
Only a question mark veiled by the suspicion that the biological origin, paradoxically, is the only plausible explanation for such a phenomenon.
Finally, I would like to emphasize that regardless of what is your (or my) opinion, we do not have any chemical or physical analysis that can show us the true nature of this phenomenon, so we are still in the field of hypothesis and not certainties.
Any opinion is welcome, but always keeping in mind that no one here has “the truth” in his pocket and never claim to have it.
This photo has been processed to allow a better view of the colors, balancing the white and slightly increasing the microcontrast and color saturation.
Original image: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/02468/mhli/2468MH0002240010902552C00_DXXX.jpg
This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.