Strange Object on Mars

[SteveNickolls]

I hope this is the right place to report this-please move it if it should be elsewhere. The image was posted by Nasa on 30 January and was taken with the right Mastcam on Curiosity and shows what appears to be a 0.5cm metal spoke protruding out of a rock. The object was first noticed by imaging editor Elisabetta Bonora. I have also tried to post an enlarged image of the object. Interesting if they can determine what it is.

Cheers,

Steve

This image was taken by Mastcam: Right (MAST_RIGHT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 173 (2013-01-30 23:39:36 UTC) .

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

[Cath]

I guess it could be a fragment of a long past buried metal meteor?

[starnut]

I just wish NASA would get their props right

[Mezolitik]

Pretty cool if it's something unique, and not part of e.g. the landing craft.

On a related note, I was reading the comments on Curiosity's Facebook page this morning (after she uploaded the self-portrait). People are so desperate to believe that Curiosity is in a Hollywood studio that they completely disregard any evidence to the contrary. It's so sad.

Anyway, the close-up of the image looks like a pair of binoculars

[tingting44]

very interesting! could be a probe from a different world?

[Shibby]

It's certainly an unusual shape... but my money would still be on a piece of eroded rock that's catching the light. There have been all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes in the MSL images!

[reddoss]

It looks perfectly natural to me, a piece of protruding rock with a shinny surface, some exposed clay minerals can reflect light.

[astro mick]

Its proberbly Beagle 2 sticking out.

[paraletic mirror]

im sure if you could blow dust of it, it proberbly reads "uss enterprise" ol

[daymo]

NASA photoshopped it in to send the conspiracy theorists into over drive.....

[davo]

It'll be interesting to see this story develop. I wonder if more images in a different lighting will clarify any more. Is Curiosity able to get closer??

[JB80]

There is another one here bottom left corner.

http://mars.jpl.nasa...0010R0_DXXX.jpg

[madatter]

They found a small piece off metal about 2 month ago, they said it was from the crane, it was about 1/2" square, what are the chances off walking through the desert and finding a pull tab from a coke can?

[madatter]

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4806

[SteveNickolls]

There is another one here bottom left corner.

http://mars.jpl.nasa...0010R0_DXXX.jpg

Yes I suppose being on Mars we ought to accept there will be 'different things' the craft discovers-different mineral appearences for example.

It'll be interesting to see this story develop. I wonder if more images in a different lighting will clarify any more. Is Curiosity able to get closer??

They are now saying the object could be rather small, 5mm has been mentioned on one site, certainly having the right scale puts a whole different slant on the possible object-I reckon it's a different crystalline material than were used to seeing on the Earth. Will keep on the look out for updates. Would be useful for NASA to try and sample it.

Cheers all,

Steve

[Cloudwatcher]

It'll be interesting to see this story develop. I wonder if more images in a different lighting will clarify any more. Is Curiosity able to get closer??

This is very true.........could be a trick of the light............for instance if the image is flipped vertically the 'object' looks very different......it no longer looks like the top of a tap.

[JB80]

Would be useful for NASA to try and sample it.

I would be totally astonished if they didn't, I mean that is what they are there for and exactly the type of anomalous feature they should be testing.

[hes not well again]

It will be something to do with aliens wanting to take over the universe for no apparent reason I should imagine

[Scooot]

Maybe it was something to do with this guy on his travels. It's a stone carving in Spanish church in Salamanca constructed in 1102. No one knows how this depiction of an astronaut got on the walls of a 12th century church.

[Scooot]

Maybe it was something to do with this guy on his travels. It's a stone carving in Spanish church in Salamanca constructed in 1102. No one knows how this depiction of an astronaut got on the walls of a 12th century church.

[cantab]

That, incidentally, is perfectly well known. The cathedral in question (actually the 16th-18th century "New cathedral" not the 12th-14th century one) was restored in the 1990s and the carvers put the astronaut in then.

[Scooot]

Third time lucky

[Scooot]

Third time lucky

I didn't know that, sorry

[Brian Nordstrom]

This is very true.........could be a trick of the light............for instance if the image is flipped vertically the 'object' looks very different......it no longer looks like the top of a tap.

You see this effect sometimes when looking at certian craters on the moon and depending on the light the crater will all of a sudden invert into a plateau rising up instead of a depression in the surface , its a strange effect but it does happen to me sometimes .

Its the way our eye/brain comprenhend what is really not there .

Brian.

[rowan46]

This is very true.........could be a trick of the light............for instance if the image is flipped vertically the 'object' looks very different......it no longer looks like the top of a tap.

Oh for a minute until I saw you rotate the picture I thought it explained a strange incident where a little grey man got out of a spaceship and asked me for the directions to the nearest plumber. I was surprised he had found one so quickly as it was only 2 months ago I was asked.