Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover

[Ichingcarpenter]

‹ ›
After a decade of exploring the Martian surface, the scientists overseeing veteran rover Opportunity thought they’d seen it all. That was until a rock mysteriously “appeared” a few feet in front of the six wheeled rover a few days ago.

News of the errant rock was announced by NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University at a special NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory “10 years of roving Mars” event at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, Calif., on Thursday night. The science star-studded public event was held in celebration of the decade since twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on the red planet in January 2004.


While chronicling the scientific discoveries made by both rovers over the years, Squyres discussed the recent finding of suspected gypsum near the rim of Endeavour Crater — a region of Meridiani Planum that Opportunity has been studying since 2011 — and the discovery of clays that likely formed in a pH-neutral wet environment in Mars past. While these discoveries have been nothing short of groundbreaking, Squyres shared the Mars rover’s team’s excitement for that one strange rock, exclaiming: “Mars keeps throwing new stuff at us!”


http://news.discovery.com/space/mystery-rock-appears-in-front-of-mars-rover-140117.htm

[greytdemocrat]

1. LOLOL!!!!

[Dash87]

2. That's a bioraptor nest

[shenmue]

5. Yep

[Rex]

3. A rock or cosmic poop?

Was it in a bag and set on fire?

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. I first thought it was

a piece of the rover, but looking more at the rover, I can't see it......

I'll stick to the martians leaving behind part of their photographic nomenclature just to mind fuck NASA.....LOL

[Rex]

10. This guy has a rendering of what he thinks it is

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. Gorginak! Gorginak!

[TlalocW]

7. Obviously it's a gift from Martians

They've had years to observe the rovers, and they've seen how interested it is in rocks so they're trying to be friendly.

TlalocW

[TroglodyteScholar]

31. Winner!

What a hearty laugh I just had...!

[theHandpuppet]

8. Okay, I'm ready for some serious theories about what that might be

Comparing the two photos, it does appear that in the first photo there is an oddly shaped depression exactly where the rock appears in photo #2, and that the outlines of the depression are similar to the shape of the rock. I have no idea what that might mean, if anything. Perhaps some geologists could weigh in here?

[dawg]

9. Looks like a gap has formed to me.

I don't see a rock. I see a fissure along the lines of the depression you note in the original photo.

[HereSince1628]

16. There are definitely matching marks before and after...

the most obvious to me is the 'arrow point' on the 'new object'. As I looked around after that I saw a handful of other features that were present before and also present on the new object.

If this was on my patio I'd be thinking frost heave.

[theHandpuppet]

18. Yes, that's along the lines of what I was thinking

Like you and the poster before you, I think the outline of the "depression" and the rock are so close as to think this is simply some kind of natural process at work.

[theHandpuppet]

22. Shadow play?

Do you mean what appears to be a rock is actually a depression and its the play of the light that's creating an illusion of a three dimensional object?

[FarCenter]

17. The sun angle has changed and the shadows are larger and more distinct in the right photo

Look carefully at the "pebbles" on the white surface on the left of both pictures.

[jeff47]

24. Well, we could go with what the scientists think

Stuart Atkinson, who writes the blog "Road to Endeavour," about Opportunity's exploits as it explores the rim of the Martian crater Endeavour, offered four theories in a Jan. 12 post:

1. It's a meteorite that fell from the sky and landed next to the rover. Atkinson admits that's a long shot, even longer than Opportunity's "cosmic hole-in-one" landing in Mars' Eagle crater on Jan. 25, 2004.

2. It's a piece of Martian rock that was blown out of the ground by a meteoroid impact and landed next to the rover. Still unlikely, he said.

3. The rock previously got stuck in a rover wheel and finally fell out in this spot. Very possible, according to Atkinson.

4. It rolled down a slope from somewhere higher up. "That's the least crazy but also the most boring idea," Atkinson wrote.

Keep in mind many days passed between those two pictures. The rover was in "low power" mode for winter.

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. Wait until Rover can flip it over . . .

.
.
.




Mystery solved!



CC

[trusty elf]

12. ...........

Last edited Fri Jan 17, 2014, 11:47 AM - Edit history (1)

[IMG][/IMG]

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. Raw Photo Data from JPL nasa link

LINK to photos:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/3540/1P442453196EFFCAEFP2594L2M1.HTML

[Arcanetrance]

14. Those rock creatures from apollo 18 have moved

[Baclava]

25. I made the mistake of trying to watch that movie once

It was soooooo horrible

Mystery Science Theater 3000 inductee

[Arcanetrance]

27. Lol it was bad I couldn't believe that got made

[awoke_in_2003]

37. No, it was too bad for even MST3000. nt

[hunter]

15. It's a mushroom. Don't eat Martian mushrooms.

They will mess you up.

[randome]

19. Maybe the Rover has glaucoma in one eye.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

[ChisolmTrailDem]

20. From Discovery News...

In a comparison of recent photographs captured by the rover’s panoramic camera, or Pancam, on sol 3528 of the mission, only bare bedrock can be seen. But on sol 3540, a fist-sized rock had appeared (raw Pancam images can be found in the mission archive). MER scientists promptly nicknamed the object “Pinnacle Island.”

“It’s about the size of a jelly doughnut,” Squyres told Discovery News. “It was a total surprise, we were like ‘wait a second, that wasn’t there before, it can’t be right. Oh my god! It wasn’t there before!’ We were absolutely startled.”

But the rover didn’t roll over that area, so where did Pinnacle Island come from?

Only two options have so far been identified as the rock’s source: 1) The rover either “flipped” the object as it maneuvered or, 2) it landed there, right in front of the rover, after a nearby meteorite impact event. The impact ejecta theory, however, is the least likely of the two.

“So my best guess for this rock … is that it’s something that was nearby,” said Squyres. “I must stress that I’m guessing now, but I think it happened when the rover did a turn in place a meter or two from where this rock now lies.”

...snip...

http://news.discovery.com/space/mystery-rock-appears-in-front-of-mars-rover-140117.htm

The next few paragraphs of that article are essential to this discussion but I've left them out due to Discovery copyright. It includes Steven Squyres explanation of how he thinks the rock got where it is now.

“It obligingly turned upside down, so we’re seeing a side that hasn’t seen the Martian atmosphere in billions of years and there it is for us to investigate. It’s just a stroke of luck,” he said.

[kristopher]

29. TiddlyWinks

TiddlyWinks with the rock from the edge of the tire.







Caring for Curiosity

NASA's Curiosity rover is as big as a compact car and weighs a ton ... and it's on Mars. Here's where the journey began. A white-room team works on the six-wheeled spacecraft on Aug. 13, 2011, at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA via Getty Images)

[yesphan]

32. I like this ^

[SidDithers]

21. Some possible explanations...

Stuart Atkinson, who writes the blog "Road to Endeavour," about Opportunity's exploits as it explores the rim of the Martian crater Endeavour, offered four theories in a Jan. 12 post:

1. It's a meteorite that fell from the sky and landed next to the rover. Atkinson admits that's a long shot, even longer than Opportunity's "cosmic hole-in-one" landing in Mars' Eagle crater on Jan. 25, 2004.

2. It's a piece of Martian rock that was blown out of the ground by a meteoroid impact and landed next to the rover. Still unlikely, he said.

3. The rock previously got stuck in a rover wheel and finally fell out in this spot. Very possible, according to Atkinson.

4. It rolled down a slope from somewhere higher up. "That's the least crazy but also the most boring idea," Atkinson wrote.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/What-s-that-New-rock-in-Mars-rover-photos-5149669.php

Sid

[kentuck]

23. Just a different angle...

taken higher with different shadows.

[Kablooie]

26. The picture he showed last night was color and the rock is white.

Against the red Mars soil.

The official term for this object, he said, is "jelly donut".
It has a different material inside from the rim.

[longship]

28. Alien guy knows.

[yesphan]

30. Wind perhaps.

If you look closely at the gravely area below the rock with the "new " rock on it, you can see several differences from the "before" photo.

[yodermon]

33. are you kidding, those embedded rocks in the background are CLEARLY paving stones.

Clearly.
Paging Richard Hoagland..

[librechik]

34. I think it might be just a different angle of light casting shadows

on the little bit of flatter looking rock in pic 1. If you look close the anomalous rock repeats the basic shape of the flat bump.

There are tons of mind-blowing anomalies on Mars. This isn't one of them. They don't want the real ones to show in the media. This will make people feel good debunking.

[sylvanus]

35. Could be some type of frost?

Gas or liquid of some type pushes up thru porous rock,
then freezes up. Maybe?

[liberal N proud]

36. Martian poop?

[GeorgeGist]

38. Litter?