Weird object spotted by Opportunity

If it was a piece of the ballon it should still be there. But alas its not, check closer at the original Panaramic picture from SOL 2 and the thing has spike like parts, three visable on the side and one on each arm like apandage.

Not ballon like in construction

NASA has raw images focused on it.

Here is ONE of four direct shots of it at max resolution.

Mars "Thing"

I just looked at it a little more closely and there does seem to be a tiny trail left behind it (I assume it's moving right since the trail points left, could be a figment of my imagination but I'm pretty sure there's a minute trail...).

As for the wind blowing the trail away, I see ripples in the sand, you know what that means. Why would NASA cover up life on Mars? You would think it would give them the credibility they've been lacking in the eyes of the general public and maybe raise some support for more funding. Maybe they know this all too well and want to make sure it IS life, we don't want another Antarctic meteor mishap.

did they give an explanation as of yet scienceguy?? I couldn't find one on the site.

Originally posted by LetMeIn

I just knew someone would find the right visual metaphor!

The "Jackalope," was pretty good too!

Lace Murex?

if it is that conch shell thingy? (that's the closest thing I've seen to that) good find.

then that would mean there was definitely water on mars! And life had evolved! And there is a greater chance of finding artifacts of intelligent life! So perhaps some of us aren't that crazy after all.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
did they give an explanation as of yet scienceguy?? I couldn't find one on the site.

NASA won't give an explination. They may give a few theories but based just on that picture you can't really tell what it is. My guess is they will take a look at it with the micro-cam when they get a chance. Til then, you probably won't hear anything about it.

I can say now that it is VERY unlikely it is part of the air bag. The airbag fabric is made to collide with the martian surface including sharp rocks over and over. It would come to a rest then just have an entire piece of airbag tear off.

It may be a natural mineral formation or some type of other material from the lander such as foil.

At this point, wait and see.

the Pan shot from SOL 2 has way more resolution and detail.

As for the trail, yes in the SOL 2 shot that Science Guy posts the link for Mars thing I can see the minute "trail" that the thing made coming down the face of the crater from the bedrock formation.

I thought I could kind of see a mild arc type trail like you would see when you were walking down across the face of a slope, instead of straight down, so if this is indeed a life form it would appear to be moving in a pattern similar to what we can observe here on earth on the sand dunes with spiders, snakes etc.

ITS NOT THERE, later shots from SOL 7 lets say, the object is no longer there.

What do you think they can say ? ITS NOT A PIECE of the air bags, the color spectrum is not the same as the small pieces of the lander that have already been identified in the sand.

Originally posted by robertfenix
ITS NOT THERE, later shots from SOL 7 lets say, the object is no longer there.

What do you think they can say ? ITS NOT A PIECE of the air bags, the color spectrum is not the same as the small pieces of the lander that have already been identified in the sand.

I'm going through the images now, i don't see the one where it is no longer there. Can you post a link to them?

marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by robertfenix
marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

Hmm, well thats not a very good resolution at a distance. You lose the ability to see a lot of smaller things too. That being said, I don't see it either and would think you'd at least see it standing out against the sand, even if a poorer quality image.

I'm curious to see what the NASA theories all.

So far we know that its a very odd shaped thing and that it MIGHT have moved. I'd love to see some better images. If NASA was focusing on it on SOL 2 and it now SOL 10 i'd guess they identified it and moved on to other things OR are taking care of other stuff then gonna go take a closer look.

I'm excited to see what NASA says. It could have been a piece of foil that blew away over night. I don't think there is enough evidence to jump to the comclusion its martian crabs yet.

I would doubt this is a fossil or a shell left over from a time when there was water on Mars.
Take a look at the rocks in the background and you can see that they have been covered with sand/soil over time.
Anything that died on the surface of Mars if/when there was liquid water would be deep underground by now.

Unless this is something that is very large and we are only seeing the tip of it, I would suggest that this is something that has only recently appeared.

there is no way a piece of foil would have split like that with two "apandages" standing in the air, with formations that look like spikes. And its pretty big relative to the area. I would say about 4 to 6 inches in size.

Its not dead and a fossil, because it would be buried, and its not buried because if you look at the pan shot SOL 2 you will see there is a shadow under the front of the object as well as the shadow cast from the "apandages"

So its not buried, its absolutly on the surface and its absolutly not in later shots of the same area.

So where is it, where did it go, what is it, is it alive, is it debris.

Judging from the panoramic view, the Rover would have bounced in diagonally from left to right. This would have taken it over the rock formation directly in front of it and possibly caused such a trajectory of flying debris. Maybe this anomaly is part of the main rock formation in front of the landing marks.
Just a quick thought, but to the right and slightly higher to the position of the anomaly is another small fragment of what could be the same material. Maybe this was gathered in the same place and broke off on impact?

there is a small fragment to the upper right, but the color spectrum is way different than the "horned" thing and its also closer to that of the components on the lander. There is a post by ZZog that does a good job focusing on all four objects and the ones that are debris from the lander have a sharp metallic color spectrum to them where the "object" does not

Plus the fact that its not there anymore

Whatever it is looks like it impacted the planet.....you can see the marks where it kinda went in and messed up the sande around it. It could be something from space....

too fragile, too small and it has a SHADOW underneath it as well as to the side.

If it impacted in the sand it would be partially buried and would have no shadow. Plus the "apandages" would have broken off.

And if it was "space" debris that impacted into the sand lets space from the lander.... THEN WHERE IS IT NOW

Just an observation. I live right beside the sea and the ridges all over the sand look exactly like the ridges you get on sand when the tide goes out.
For the mentally challenged, I'm not saying the tide just went out, but that they may be what has been left from the tide going out or a river etc retreating many (insert preferred hypostasise here) years ago.
Certainly looks like it.