• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Mystery Rock appears in front of Mars rover Opportunity

DarthTom

DarthTom

Fleet Admiral
Admiral
No doubt the conspiracy theorists are abuzz over this. BTW, happy 10th birthday to Opportunity. It's amazing that this rover has lasted this long.

MSN
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fl. — Scientists are stumped as to how a rock mysteriously appeared in images taken two weeks apart by NASA's Mars rover Opportunity.
The rover, which landed in an area known as Meridiani Planum a decade ago, is exploring the rim of a crater for signs of past water.
Another rover, Curiosity, touched down on the opposite side of the planet in 2012 for a more ambitious mission to look for past habitable environments.
For the moment, however, scientists are pondering a more immediate question. On January 8, while preparing to use its robotic arm for science investigation, Opportunity sent back a picture of its work area.
Click to expand...

edited to add:

Ha, that didn't take long. Here is a popular UFO conspiracy site speculating on what this might be:

UFO sightings daily.com
I enlarged the object and it seems to be an odd shaped creature of some sort. In the enlargement you can also see that its sort of a square shape, but its center is pushed downward. It would be cool if this was some kind of crab-like creature. Very cool and please visit the source for the full story about it. SCW
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
A strong enough wind in the near vacuum conditions of Mars atmosphere would have been noticed.
 
Any possibility that the rock fell there from some ballistic trajectory that was caused by forces besides those of local weather conditions around the rover?

Like, could it have been kicked up by a storm that's elsewhere? Could it be part of a meteorite?
 
I've been telling you that these Martian kids are up to no good, but you wouldn't listen. First they try to entice your soul by cleaning your solar panels, then the second you turn your back they start throwing rocks at you. And when you bring out your robotic arm to whip them, the smartass will start lying, telling you "Oh, it wasn't me, Mr. Oppy, it was the wind that did it!", and it will break your heart and you will believe it. And it will be too late when you remember there's not enough air there to lift your underwear off the clothesline, which is why they send you there instead of a human.
 
Yeah, looks like either a small light coloured fragment of stone or a small lump of melted metal, any small atmospheric meterorite impact could have generated debris like that over a wide area.
 
sojourner said:
My wild ass guess is it was kicked up by one of the wheels.
Click to expand...

That's what NASA engineers think what happened but they have no proof/evidence either way. No doubt this mysteriously appearing rock will create a lot of speculation with the UFO folks.
 
sojourner said:
My wild ass guess is it was kicked up by one of the wheels.
Click to expand...
Interesting though that for all the rocks we might have kicked over this one seems to be highly unusual.

"It's like nothing we ever seen before. It's very high in sulfur, very high in magnesium, it has twice as much manganese than anything we've seen on Mars," Squyres said with excitement in last week's Jan. 16 event.
Click to expand...
Link

---------------
 
^^

It's too bad that Curiousity is on the other side of the planet and is unable to do a chemical analysis of the rock.
 
A Chinese Cosmonaut tossed it in there. In Beijing Mission Control, they're having the BIGGEST laugh right now :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top