Claim: Crashed UFO Disk/Saucer on Mars

[Deleted member 16321]

I'm almost hesitant to post this here as it's wholly a unconvincing claim. However, it's been reported by many different media sources - often unquestioningly - and has tens of thousands of views on social media so I thought it might be worth adding to the collection of claims in need of debunking.

Claim: NASA images show a crashed alien spacecraft or "flying saucer" on Mars.

This appears to be the original video claim:

The original images can be downloaded here.
https://www.uahirise.org/PSP_001918_1735

And if you're willing to open a very large 1.4GB image file the one to look at is: PSP_001918_1735_RED.JP2

I'm no expert but to my eye but looking at the same NASA image there are more than a few apparent sand dunes elsewhere in the same image file that have similar curves and shadows. The one being shared just happens to be at the end of what looks like a ravine.





Also helpful is this article on "Ghost Dunes" on Mars.

https://blogs.agu.org/geospace/2018/07/10/scientists-discover-ghost-dunes-on-mars/

Particularly this illustration of how they form over time. Figure e. looking very similar to one of the images being shared with the extraordinary claims.

 

[Mendel]

The physics don't support a crash if this is supposed to be a deep gouge.

a) If the crashing UFO gouged out a ditch, where's the ejected material? There should be a pile of ground to either side.
b) A deep ditch requires a downforce, you have that at impact, but then the ditch is short because it eats a lot of energy fast (by ejecting material like a plow).
c) A long crash track is shallow, but then the disk would not get stuck in the ground at the end.
d) Most noticably there is no impact mark/crater at the start of the ground track. This would point to a very shallow touchdown. But the crossing sand dunes suggest a deep mark.

 

[Mick West]

The JP2 format is difficult to open for many programs. Dave Beaty converted it to PNG, which is a 1.2GB file, but you can at least open it in Photoshop, etc.
https://www.theblackvault.com/casef...issance-orbiter-photo-taken-29-december-2006/
I have mirrored the PNG here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hh1lhia20z03z4x/PSP_001984_1735_RED.png?dl=0
And added a 305mb jpg version, which is pretty much the same.

It seems pretty obvious to me that it's just a curved dune, as there are other very similar dunes



And in crevasses




It's what I called the "oddest potato" fallacy. It's a huge image with lots of similar things in it. Just like if you look at 5000 potatoes you will find some odd ones, and one of those will be the oddest. This is simply the oddest one of a variety of similar things.

 

[Deleted member 16321]

The JP2 format is difficult to open for many programs. Dave Beaty converted it to PNG, which is a 1.2GB file, but you can at least open it in Photoshop, etc.

Opens fine in Preview on a Mac.

 

[Mick West]

Opens fine in Preview on a Mac.

It's super slow on my Mac in Preview. Photoshop would not even try. But it loads the PNG fine.

 

[JFDee]

The available stereo view (anaglyph, red/green) is rather cool. The depth is much overpronounced, but it enables viewing the topography of the canyon with the crescent dune in great detail.

I'm using IrfanView in its latest version with the matching plugins, and watching JPEG2000 works well if a bit slow on my laptop.

https://www.uahirise.org/anaglyph/PSP_001984_1735

Anyway, the topology doesn't show a straight 'crash track'. The crescent-shaped dune is itself on a slope, the deepest point of the canyon is quite a bit eastward of it.

 

[Ann K]

Candor Chasma is in the immediate vicinity of the recently-announced discovery of a great reservoir of water ice on Mars. Might the initial long grooves be ice cracks somewhat like glacial crevasses? The dunes crossing it may be sand or may be dust, and as the winds on Mars are known to be exceedingly high, those lines are more likely to be wind-created, not "spilling down" as the initial video describes. As for the curved "saucer", anybody in a snowy area is familiar with the curves and swooshes caused as snow blows around even a small obstruction. Such an obstruction is not clearly seen in the pictures, but I think it cannot be discounted as the cause of the curve.