What's this in the Martian Sky?

thanks mark, that seems to be the most plausible explanation to me...I was leaning towards it being a satellite too..perhaps even mars express.

I don't think it would be the sun...just way too small

there is still a possibility it could be one of the martian moons.

don't mean to disregard any of the other suggestions, or lessen the value of any of the posts offered but I want a scientist or astronomer with credentials to tell me what I am seeing....so where are the experts when you need them?

Originally posted by EmbryonicEssence
Here's what would be a picture of the Earth on Mars if the clouds were not obstructing the view and a description below the picture.




This is the first image ever taken from the surface of Mars of an overcast sky. Featured are stratus clouds coming from the northeast at about 15 miles per hour (6.7 meters/second) at an approximate height of ten miles (16 kilometers) above the surface. The "you are here" notation marks where Earth was situated in the sky at the time the image was taken. Scientists had hoped to see Earth in this image, but the cloudy conditions prevented a clear viewing. Similar images will be taken in the future with the hope of capturing a view of Earth. From Mars, Earth would appear as a tiny blue dot as a star would appear to an earthbound observer. Pathfinder's imaging system will not be able to resolve Earth's moon. The clouds consist of water ice condensed on reddish dust particles suspended in the atmosphere. Clouds on Mars are sometimes localized and can sometimes cover entire regions, but have not yet been observed to cover the entire planet. The image was taken about an hour and forty minutes before sunrise by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) on Sol 16 at about ten degrees up from the eastern Martian horizon.

mars has clouds? wow, you learn something new every day. not to sound ignorant if i do, but doesn't that mean it should rain on mars too?

Clouds can form from just about anything. Look at Venus, its clouds are a nice sulfuric acid. As far as Mars, supposedly the clouds are made up of CO2. They also say the atmosphere is mostly made of CO2 but from these unaltered Hubble pictures below, it looks more like Nitrogen to me because of the blue.

probably ufo they more common in space and on other planets

Im sorry I cant agree with that being a sat. its to big to be one its luminesesense is to bright. If it was to be a sat then those are some big solar panels.

thanks for all the suggestions...unfortunately we don't really have a true clear answer as to what the dot/orb is....so I am going to have to declare it as:

USFO : an unidentified flying space object.
or unidentified floating space object.

Why it cant be the Earth: Earth has a planetary Albedo of 30% meaning thats how much reflectivity it has. Mars has a 22% albedo and Venus has an 80% albedo. As you can see, it is pretty obvious why you can see Venus during the day compared to Mars. But the difference between Earth and Mars is only 8%. This would make it almost as hard to see Earth from Mars as it is to see Mars from Earth.

Why it ain't the Sun: Earth is 1 AU away from the sun while Mars is 1.52 AU's away. So take 50% of the size we see the sun on Earth and there you have the size of the sun (at least thats how i do the calculations, a real astronomer would be able to tell if i was doing the calculations right or wrong). Also, the shadows on the rocks make it look like the sun is directly overhead. The shadows should be longer in my opinion based on where this "sun" is on the horizon. The hillside should be shadowed more at the base of the hill than at the top and what you see is uniform.

I'm pretty sure it isnt the Sun or Earth. It's most likely a moon or a spacecraft. (Big difference I know but its fun to think outside the box).

Well, it's not the sun. For a good idea of what size the sun would appear look at these pics frol sol 2 where the sun is just above the pic:

marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

Remember the "brightness" of a Mars day is going to be quite a bit less than here on Earth, so brighter objects are going to have a better chance of not being "washed out" completely. So it could be Jupiter (which we're a lot closer to), or Earth, or even one of the brighter stars...or a Martian moon. BUT, when I look at this, and especially when I blow it up, it looks like a bad pixel in the digital file. Noise. That's just my opinion, but that's what it looks like.

For a second pic with an "apparent" object in the sky, but this time a dark one...look here:

marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

NEVERMIND, I found my little white dot, it's still there.



[edit on 11-15-2007 by worldwatcher]

I belive it's be the sun. Don't forget there was a recent dust storm on Mars and although it has calmed now, there is still much dust in the air which would scatter the light form the sun.

If it were the Earth, why would Mars be able to see it durring the day while we can't see Mars?

Mars is much smaller than the Earth,m about a third of the size. As someone pointed out Venus is the same size of the Earth, but much further away than Mars is from us and that is visible during the day, so Earth is another possibility.

In fear of sounding rude, I think that you guys are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
The real question we should be asking from this picture is "Why the heck can't NASA provide a decent color picture?" I mean it is not 1965 for heaven's sakes we have the technology for clear, color pictures!
My theory would be that a color picture would give away the fields covered with green grass type of foliage.
If you notice some of the hills on the left side of the picture are darker and bushy looking. sometimes evena dark, round object sticks up. looks very similar to fields here on earth. I wish someone could colorize this picture somehow.

so...I am the only one that sees grass here?? (crickets in the background...chirp..chirp)