Now here's a Mars find for pet lovers: Cute, furry, and ready to tear your little heart out

May I introduce to you, from the Mars anomalies thread, thread regular Char-Lee's very nice potential - a furry little ball of fluff with eyes that only your mother would love (as they stare into her soul). Here is user funbox's first imaging of it, in a post where he says it reminds him of the baby from "Eraserhead":



Here's a link to Char-Lee's first posting on the rock/creature. www.abovetopsecret.com...

The original Rover picture is: marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov... (EDIT:In a post further down Jeep explains that this is a pic from the Spirit Rover, and I explain how it got entangled in his ultra-large Mars anomaly thread)

From the shadows - and from the rest of NASA's photo you can see that it's just about noon, so the other objects in the picture have very little shadowing - this object seems to be separated from the rock just to its right. There are shadows under the object, and there is a shadow with the shape of its "snout" under it as well.

Comments are very welcome (I'll save you time: "Rocks", "I can't believe people waste my time with..." "Mods, move this to Skunk works because it actually looks like a skunk..." etc). Thanks to Char-Lee for asking me to start off this thread, and I expect her by momentarily after I take the first barrage of stones and rocks.

reply to post by Aleister

a furry little ball of fluff with eyes that only your mother would love

I will name it blacky.

Blacky the black spot.

boncho

I will name it blacky.

Blacky the black spot.

... and I will name it Perry the Pareidolia

Aleister

 

The original Rover picture is: marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

From the shadows - and from the rest of NASA's photo you can see that it's just about noon, so the other objects in the picture have very little shadowing - this object is separated from the rock just to its right, there are shadows under the object, and there is a shadow with the shape of its "snout" under it as well

That's an image acquired on sol 527 by the Spirit rover (MER-A). There are actually two pics available for that very same scene. Here go the original links:

1. SPIRIT image archive for Sol 527
2. Original Image (Left)
3. Original Image (Right)

There are quite a few interesting features spread across that image, whereas I wouldn't want to interpret them in the way you suggest in the OP ... perhaps I'm just seeing things a bit differently. Thanks, though, for bringing this to our attention, Aleister!

P.S.: The bright, 'gleaming' spot in the middle of that crop seems to be a dead pixel artifact that's been enlarged/blurred, I'm pretty sure it shows up on every image taken with that particular camera ...

AliceBleachWhite

boncho

I will name it blacky.

Blacky the black spot.

... and I will name it Perry the Pareidolia

I will name it the mother of all Pareidolias

jeep3r

P.S.: The bright, 'gleaming' spot in the middle of that crop seems to be a dead pixel artifact that's been enlarged/blurred, I'm pretty sure it shows up on every image taken with that particular camera ...

You could have told us that on your thread, but, if is it a dead pixel (RIP - rest in pixels) it's "spot on" perfect to create this optical illusion. Can someone check to see if this is a reoccurring broken pixel. Thanks.

And now I see what happened. The picture was brought to the anomalies thread by Windward after I had posted a question concerning the "Forest on Mars" thread about "Hey, what happened to all the pictures?" He looked on the page I'd posted more or less at random, page 56 of that thread, and found this image that worked. It's apparently from the Spirit Rover (good eye Jeep!). Then Char-Lee took a glance at his pic, and with the eye of an Eagle-scout found the rock-creature with the blazing pixel eye (Aye!). That's how pixelated history is made. Here is Windward's post pointing to NASA's picture:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Aleister


One question........... Why are pictures of ALL Mars 'anomolies' blurry? Is this NASA purposefully doing it or does it occur when someone enlarges the pic? I'm obviously not an optical physicist or photoshop expert.

Aleister

jeep3r

P.S.: The bright, 'gleaming' spot in the middle of that crop seems to be a dead pixel artifact that's been enlarged/blurred, I'm pretty sure it shows up on every image taken with that particular camera ...

You could have told us that on your thread, but, if is it a dead pixel (RIP - rest in pixels) it's "spot on" perfect to create this optical illusion. Can someone check to see if this is a reoccurring broken pixel. Thanks.

edit on 18-2-2014 by Aleister because: (no reason given)

Yes, I probably should've done so ... but I was looking into a few other things, too, and didn't focus on that particular feature until you've created this very thread!


P.S.: This sol 527 image is, AFAIK, still one of the most discussed SPIRIT images among anomaly hunters and I myself also see some peculiar 'rocks' there that kinda stand out from the rest!

UnBreakable
reply to post by Aleister

 

One question........... Why are pictures of ALL Mars 'anomolies' blurry? Is this NASA purposefully doing it or does it occur when someone enlarges the pic? I'm obviously not an optical physicist or photoshop expert.

This one is quite a distance from the camera, so the enlarging process adds more blur as well as pixel and photo artifacts. Pics a long way from the lens tend not to be trustworthy, except for this one of course. I've called animal patrol, but they're about six years too late.

jeep3r

Aleister

jeep3r

P.S.: The bright, 'gleaming' spot in the middle of that crop seems to be a dead pixel artifact that's been enlarged/blurred, I'm pretty sure it shows up on every image taken with that particular camera ...

You could have told us that on your thread, but, if is it a dead pixel (RIP - rest in pixels) it's "spot on" perfect to create this optical illusion. Can someone check to see if this is a reoccurring broken pixel. Thanks.

edit on 18-2-2014 by Aleister because: (no reason given)

Yes, I probably should've done so ... but I was looking into a few other things, too, and didn't focus on that particular feature until you've created this very thread!

P.S.: This sol 527 image is, AFAIK, still one of the most discussed SPIRIT images among anomaly hunters and I myself also see some peculiar 'rocks' there that kinda stand out from the rest!

Thanks. Since you're in for a pound and I have no pennies, please elaborate on the pic, and I'll try to add the entire picture here. So if it's known, then this furry guy must have been discussed and trampled upon already, do you have any links to those discussions? Thanks again.

Spirit's original pic, the little guy is way back there, little (well, maybe not so far back there):

reply to post by Aleister


A baby Mars bird with cat-eye glasses on?

Keep em comin' you King O' Delia.

Baddogma
reply to post by Aleister

 

A baby Mars bird with cat-eye glasses on?

Keep em comin' you King O' Delia.

Baddogma, good to see you. I don't mind taking the heat from the ATS kitchen in the least, I still think it's one of the better and fun Mars anomaly finds. Char-Lee, who had the idea for this thread, has found many interesting things in Mars pics, and her collection is worthy of an exhibit in the UnNatural History Museum. The anomalies thread itself is very educational, a good playground, and has found many rocks of note. Come by and join us, if you dare!

reply to post by AliceBleachWhite


perry seems to like that



funBox

I will refer to it from this day forward as BulbaSaur

reply to post by funbox


A high six to funbox!



Reminds me though, Jeep laid out links to a few pictures of the area, does the damaged pixel he mentions show up in all of them on the same spot, or does it move around, or.....is it there at all?

reply to post by Aleister


you mean brundle fly, I guess its stuck to the camera, maybe a passing dust devil will give the lens a clean,, that's a point I wonder how well the rover can take mini tornadoes? all the cameras have a few bits on them now , the rear cameras look like theve been dragged through a martain hedge backwards

could be some dramatic shots on the cards

funBox

Aleister
Thanks. Since you're in for a pound and I have no pennies, please elaborate on the pic, and I'll try to add the entire picture here. So if it's known, then this furry guy must have been discussed and trampled upon already, do you have any links to those discussions? Thanks again.

The below section of that image was what had been discussed quite intensively back then, but I'm not sure whether CharLee's find had been part of those conversations:



After a quick check, here go two related threads from ATS:
Thread 1
Thread 2

And an external presentation of the same feature (coined 'dragontoy'):
External site

funbox
reply to post by AliceBleachWhite

 

perry seems to like that

funBox

I think he is chewing a mars worm!

reply to post by funbox


Naw, Jeep informed us that this is a photo from Spirit, which we all missed when Windward posted a link to it. And as we know, Spirit is dead, Jim. A dead parrot. There are no specks to clean, because it's stuck in the sand, turned off, and left to rot in the sun.

I will call it...


Blotch the grey Splotch!