Mars Static on Spirit Rover Wheel?

I thought this looked cool, figured I would share.
Sorry if this already been discussed, couldnt find it if it was.

It's a pic from the Spirit Rover. Link to pic

Look's like a static charge to me, on the wheel to the ground.
Is that possible or is it just a blemish on the pic?

Sure looks like a charge though.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/306dc2c952d96663.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 21-8-2009 by earth2]

[edit on 21-8-2009 by earth2]

Personaly I would have to say it's a blemish of some kind.

The sun is shining on the inside of the other wheel, so I don't think it's a reflection off anything.

The white spot in question is on top of a rock which like the rest of them are non-reflective so I don't see it being glare either.

That's my thought on it. Cool pic though.

Originally posted by earth2
I thought this looked cool, figured I would share.
Sorry if this already been discussed, couldnt find it if it was.

It's a pic from the Spirit Rover. Link to pic

Look's like a static charge to me, on the wheel to the ground.
Is that possible or is it just a blemish on the pic?

Sure looks like a charge though.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/306dc2c952d96663.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 21-8-2009 by earth2]

[edit on 21-8-2009 by earth2]

Certainly does.

I'm not qualified to determine one way or another but an interesting picture, well spotted.

Starred and flagged.

reply to post by ShadowLink


Yea I was thinking it was probably a blemish also, but man does it look like a spark.

Can thing's spark on mars? Is that possible?

May be a form of communication???????

[edit on 8/21/09 by Ophiuchus 13]

reply to post by earth2

It's probably a reflection and an overloaded image sensor.

The reflection could be a simple circular reflection of the Sun off of the metal wheel. The "arcing" effect is probably just a common artifact that occurs when a bright spot on an image overloads the image sensor, such as this picture of Opportunity's heat shield:


The overloaded sensor is evident throughout the image I posted, but specifically the small reflection near the bottom right (where the shield is resting on the soil) looks very much like the image in the OP.


[edit on 8/21/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

Looks like static discharge to me, you can see it lighting up the surrounding area.

As for static to happen on Mars, I'm not a scientist or anything. But Mars has iron in it's sand doesn't it?

Would that mean that the martian sand is a good electric conductor instead of it being a way to ground things?

And if you've got a wheel like on the Spirit rover rubbing across sand like that and it is conductive, then it's possible to create static electricity.

But like I said, I'm not a scientist, so I don't know.

reply to post by Red-eye-syndrome



I agree, the surrounding area is lit up.

And there really isnt any shiny metal in the area of the spark, mostly dirt next to the wheel.
So, how would that create a film glitch-blemish from the sun?

Any other time I would have said, 'o its just a glitch', but it really look's like a spark. I just have that gut feeling.

Logic would say that it would be noise in the transmission that caused it. There is no way that it is a reflection from the rover because of all the dirt accumulated on it over the years. I don't see anything laying there to reflect that much light and at that direct angle.

Now conspiratorially, I think that it my be a static spark.

I think it accidentally ran over one of the little electric martians that made the pyramids for the ancient illuminati. What you are seeing is a small wormhole the being opened to escape.

I saw a lot of small static light interference in a picture posted by another Member yesterday, I did ask what they where, but didn't seem to get an answer.

I saw this picture on this thread.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Is this just interference? or something to do with Solar activity? or even caused by the stuck wheel being dragged across the surface as reported in the same thread?

Link to thread and three pictures where this effect begins to build

Got to add, some of them are streaks, does that mean they are moving? and one of them at least looks like what this OP was about but in the air, see pic for the effect, some are even in the sky.

My own opinion however is whatever is causing that spark on the wheel, is building an Electric charge around the rover giving the effect in the picture linked above.




[edit on 22/8/2009 by azzllin]

I got to agree with Soylent that this is just a reflection of light that is also overloading the image sensor of the hazcam. The streaks are perfectly horizontal with the rest of the image. I find it highly unlikely that an electric spark would be perfectly pixel straight and horizontal with the image.

Also. Here are the other images from that day taken with both the left and right front hazcams.

The first two Left and Right images.

You can see the reflected light in both images, but it's not as bright in the right image. So it's not overloading the sensor and making those horizontal streaks.

The next two Left and Right images.

The same thing happens. Were it a static discharge, I think it would look the same in both the left and right images. So to me it seems that it's just light reflecting off the metal wheel.

Originally posted by Red-eye-syndrome
Looks like static discharge to me, you can see it lighting up the surrounding area.

A reflection would light up the surrounding area, also.

As jra showed in the post above, the horizontal streak is an overloaded camera sensor (although the reflection is real).

reply to post by jra



I would agree with you, however, the spark is on the inside of the wheel.

Which happen's to be in the shadow also. And I dont see anything that could be reflecting light there that bright.

Imo, it look's just like a spark.

If you enlarge it, it doesn't look like it's part of the original picture and is too well defined.

reply to post by earth2

As jra pointed out, the "right eye" of the camera (which takes a picture at the exact same time as the "left eye") captured the same "object" looking different. The horizontal line was not as long:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c8cd07cd3b16.jpg[/atsimg]

And then there is this picture take about 36 minutes earlier (2205 seconds earlier, according to the time stamp in the file name). The "object" was present even when this picture was taken:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/0cd71605ef7b.jpg[/atsimg]

It would be quite a feat for the Rover to take two pictures that day, and get lucky enough not once, but twice to capture a picture of a static electricity spark.

No -- it seems to me that the horizontal line in the picture is simply a sensor overload (i.e. the horizontal line isn't really there), and the bright "object" itself is a reflection.

By the way, the wheel is curved, so it could be catching a reflection even though it seems that all of the wheel is in a shadow. The curved wheel can act like a concave or convex mirror catching light coming in at odd angles.

FYI, here are links to all 4 pictures taken that day (2 images, each viewed through the "left eye" and "right eye" = 4 total). The picture in the OP is the third one:
marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...
marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...
marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...
marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by aleon1018
If you enlarge it, it doesn't look like it's part of the original picture and is too well defined.

I agree. If you zoom in real close, you can see the "object" (what I think is a reflection) has a blurry edge. The pixels near the perimeter fade to shdes of gray. The horizontal line (which I say is camera sensor overload) is very sharp and the "whiteness" of the pixels end abruptly.

It's a lot like this example image of opportunity's heat shield. By the way -- as I said in a post yesterday, if you look near the bottom right where the heat shield is resting on the soil, you can see a small reflection with a very short streak caused by a camera sensor overload -- which is a very similar effect as what is seen in the OP's picture :

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/edc4cea0f1c1.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by azzllin


Azzllin can you or someone els out there tell me what the platform with a brick like pattern and some kind of shift stick looking object is ?

This is Mars isn't it ?

Please don't make fun of me if it turns out to be something others think I should know.
I will know when taught.

I would say it is a sand storm static discharge. Back in the American Dust Bowl static would build up to levels so high that if you touched a fence post or other metal object after a dust storm you would get set on your rear. I am surprised the such static has not fryed the poor thing yet. Maybe that is how it kepts on going. It is some how running off this static. Just an idea.

This reflection or whatever, reminds me of a magnifying glass. Maybe it's just some reflection from the solar panel up above. I seriously doubt it's some static charge. You can see more of a reflection in other pictures. It might even be some focused light they have on the lander for inspections and viewing?