Rock or fungus? Martian controversy in the hands of justice - iOnline

NASA ensures the checks i have ever made and is even a stone. Judge will assess whether the agency has enough

“Any intelligent adult, a teenager, a child, a chimpanzee, a monkey, a dog or rodent with a hint of curiosity would be closer for a better look.” Rhawn Joseph spares no irony in the petition filed Jan. 27 against NASA in Northern California District Court. The astrobiologist, known by its scientific papers that speculate on the existence of extraterrestrial life, seeks a court order to that NASA is obliged to do microscopic images of the finding that the January 17 rated as “something never seen” and now claims to be a rock. The case is in the hands of the Senior Judge Ronald M. Whyte, who has not scheduled hearings. But NASA has been notified.

In the petition, Rhawn Joseph reports that after the space agency has revealed captured by the Opportunity rover pictures – a cup-shaped structure and the size of a donut that was not in that place 12 days before – it increased disseminated photographs and ensures, already in the first came the same structure but smaller. Faced with this evidence, and because there are no marks on the floor consistent with a meteorite impact or any displacement caused by the rover – hypotheses NASA – believes it is possible that it was similar to a fungus mushroom structure on Earth call Apoteca and is composed of lichens and cyanobacteria. “The reason NASA is bizarre, absurd, ignorant and almost magical. A rock or a meteor do not grow,” reads the petition, which the researcher asks why NASA have released images taken only ten feet from the structure, low resolution and blurry.

The case was sent in recent days to the realm of the unusual and the space agency ensures there is no doubt that the object is a rock and made more close-up images. “NASA has publicly disclosed the ongoing investigation that includes close-up images of rock we called Pinnacle Island,” said i communications director, Allard Beutel, adding, however, that the agency is get acquainted with the legal process and answer the “appropriate time”.