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JayinAR
reply to post by muzzleflash
"Near" 90°?
My eyeball tells me that is dead on 90°…
grey580
Link
This is interesting. It's a rock. But how did it get there?
They speculate possibly a meteor event or even the rover itself flipping the rock over.
Or maybe it's some Alien teens playing a prank.
But it's interesting nonetheless.
After a decade of exploring the Martian surface, the scientists overseeing veteran rover Opportunity thought they’d seen it all. That was until a rock mysteriously “appeared” a few feet in front of the six wheeled rover a few days ago.
News of the errant rock was announced by NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University at a special NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory “10 years of roving Mars” event at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, Calif., on Thursday night. The science star-studded public event was held in celebration of the decade since twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on the red planet in January 2004.
AthlonSavage
reply to post by grey580
None of the other rocks and stones appeared moved so its not wind have blow it there.
So you are left with two choices
1. it was photoshopped
2. Its a form of life it moved or grew into that position.
3. some alien is playing with the humans heads, by placing the rock there
4. it was literally THROWN there by the rover wheel as suggested by the professionals quoted in this very thread and backed up by the photos posted by blister which show the mineral traces between the rock's previous location and its new resting spot.
There are no other options
Emerys
If the rover wheel moved it, then it would have moved the smaller rocks to the left as well, or at least shifted them, but it did not.
Arken
ArMaP
Interesting find.
Sol 3541 has better (in my opinion) photos of the rock, so I made a colour version.
In colour it looks even more interesting.
Thanks for this, ArMaP.
At first glance it looks like.... Mother Pearl...
LeviWardrobe
Did a bit of perspective correction because I wanted to see if there was any obvious disturbance around the site. As best as I can see, there isn't. It looks like the rock could've just been place there, as opposed to "knocked" into place. Every significant feature that you can see is, essentially, in identical positions between the two images.
i.imgur.com...
You'd figure we would see some sort of disturbance. The image quality is pretty bad, so it's hard to tell for sure.
LeviWardrobe
Did a bit of perspective correction because I wanted to see if there was any obvious disturbance around the site. As best as I can see, there isn't. It looks like the rock could've just been place there, as opposed to "knocked" into place. Every significant feature that you can see is, essentially, in identical positions between the two images.
i.imgur.com...
You'd figure we would see some sort of disturbance. The image quality is pretty bad, so it's hard to tell for sure.
ArMaP
Emerys
If the rover wheel moved it, then it would have moved the smaller rocks to the left as well, or at least shifted them, but it did not.
I know the rover's wheels are not tires like in common Earth cars, but couldn't the rock have been projected by one wheel pressing a corner of the rock and making it jump, like in that game with the coins?
funbox
reply to post by ArMaP
a much better picture Armap, kinda looks like a geode to me, etheir that or an egg got broken and theres a nest of angry baby snakes
funBox
funbox
reply to post by lostgirl
aye?
*funbox reaches into the ball of frantic arms legs and gaffertape*
run that by me again lost girl
Blister
reply to post by JayinAR
Note that the actual means by which "Pinnacle Island" was moved is conjecture. There are currently three options:
(1) It was carried inside a wheel
(2) It was flicked by a wheel and landed a couple of feet away (where we now see it)
and,
(3) It was magnetically attracted to the rover's arm as Opportunity took a close look at it. The rover then moved the arm and subsequently either the rock fell off, or was "swiped off" by the arm.