Something Weird Is Happening on Mars... (1 Viewer)

[NCCommish]

The rover has a bad wheel and they have trouble steering it. It easily could have dislodged a nearby rock on its last pass.

It's hilarious that it says they have no idea how it got there...right before offering several explanations for exactly how it could have ended up there.

If the rover has a top speed of 0.05 mph, how is it going to dislodge a rock, flip it over, and have it land in this area where everything else hasn't been disturbed? Seems very unlikely to me.

But someone placing it there does seem likely? A meteorite that we didn't detect hitting the planet seems likely? Of those 3 choices the rover kicking it up seems most likely.

Oh, I wasn't saying any of the other explanations seemed likely. In fact, the most likely thing I've seen suggested is some kind of wind phenomena.

I guess wind is a possibility but that must have been a heck of breeze. Also I thought the rover was monitoring local conditions. Seems like a breeze big enough to move a rock would have gotten the sensors attention.

 

[Tecumseh]

Looks like a space slug to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MnJrenTkGGE#t=38

 

[TheIronSheik]

So just to be clear, NASA says this thing is weird and like nothing we've seen before. FFA rules that that is incorrect and NASA is wrong in their assumptions.

Good work again, FFA!

 

[NCCommish]

So just to be clear, NASA says this thing is weird and like nothing we've seen before. FFA rules that that is incorrect and NASA is wrong in their assumptions.

Good work again, FFA!

No. It's still a weird rock. And how it got there is still a mystery. However the assumption that the rock itself is incredibly unique doesn't really pass the logic test. It may be but then again given how little we really know about Mars it may not be. Maybe the rover is sitting on the equivalent of the Comstock Lode of them. We don't know and we won't until people go there most likely.

 

[Rohn Jambo]

If another rock shows up then I will be worried.

 

[matttyl]

The rover has a bad wheel and they have trouble steering it. It easily could have dislodged a nearby rock on its last pass.

It's hilarious that it says they have no idea how it got there...right before offering several explanations for exactly how it could have ended up there.

If the rover has a top speed of 0.05 mph, how is it going to dislodge a rock, flip it over, and have it land in this area where everything else hasn't been disturbed? Seems very unlikely to me.

But someone placing it there does seem likely? A meteorite that we didn't detect hitting the planet seems likely? Of those 3 choices the rover kicking it up seems most likely.

Oh, I wasn't saying any of the other explanations seemed likely. In fact, the most likely thing I've seen suggested is some kind of wind phenomena.

I guess wind is a possibility but that must have been a heck of breeze. Also I thought the rover was monitoring local conditions. Seems like a breeze big enough to move a rock would have gotten the sensors attention.

If it were "wind", then how come none of the other (much smaller) rocks moved...at all?

 

[Fennis]

If another rock shows up then I will be worried.

I would be even more worried if paper shows up

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

The rover has a bad wheel and they have trouble steering it. It easily could have dislodged a nearby rock on its last pass.

It's hilarious that it says they have no idea how it got there...right before offering several explanations for exactly how it could have ended up there.

If the rover has a top speed of 0.05 mph, how is it going to dislodge a rock, flip it over, and have it land in this area where everything else hasn't been disturbed? Seems very unlikely to me.

Well obviously they need to send another rover to see what the hell is going on.

 

[McGarnicle]

I think the rock is probably Jesus.

 

[Rohn Jambo]

If I have to take a guess then it might be something like the sailing stones of Death Valley (here on earth).

 

[matttyl]

If I have to take a guess then it might be something like the sailing stones of Death Valley (here on earth).

A few of them went missing back in May, maybe this is what happened to them.

 

[Rohn Jambo]

If I have to take a guess then it might be something like the sailing stones of Death Valley (here on earth).

A few of them went missing back in May, maybe this is what happened to them.

It is no longer a mystery how the stones moved but how did they get to Mars?

 

[shadyridr]

So just to be clear, NASA says this thing is weird and like nothing we've seen before. FFA rules that that is incorrect and NASA is wrong in their assumptions.

Good work again, FFA!

my thoughts exactly

 

[GroveDiesel]

So just to be clear, NASA says this thing is weird and like nothing we've seen before. FFA rules that that is incorrect and NASA is wrong in their assumptions.

Good work again, FFA!

my thoughts exactly

NASA makes all sorts of wild claims in the press about amazing finds that they later backtrack on. It's to keep them in the news and try to justify their existence and budget.

 

[Cliff Clavin]

So just to be clear, NASA says this thing is weird and like nothing we've seen before. FFA rules that that is incorrect and NASA is wrong in their assumptions.

Good work again, FFA!

my thoughts exactly

NASA makes all sorts of wild claims in the press about amazing finds that they later backtrack on. It's to keep them in the news and try to justify their existence and budget.

And if people weren't so ignorant as to what NASA accomplishes, they wouldn't have to do that.

 

[St. Louis Bob]

Whoa.

 

[Monkian]

Tycho Magnetic Anomaly?

The other side of the rock is inscribed "All these worlds are yours except Europa, attempt no landings there"...

Their English isn't that good. It probably reads, "All your base are belong to us".

You're thinking of Asia, not Europa.

 

[Johnny Rock]

The Martians slipped a loop into NASA's feed and when the loop was turned off the rock was "magically" there.

 

[DiStefano]

It's JFK:

Ich bin ein Berliner!

 

[Politician Spock]

Not jelly....it's just alien poop.

Maybe someone took a dump in the Challenger before it launched, and it took 28 years to go from the explosion to Mars.

 

[DaVinci]

Perhaps a Martian penguin is attempting to woo the rover.

 

[Godsbrother]

The rover has a bad wheel and they have trouble steering it. It easily could have dislodged a nearby rock on its last pass.

It's hilarious that it says they have no idea how it got there...right before offering several explanations for exactly how it could have ended up there.

If the rover has a top speed of 0.05 mph, how is it going to dislodge a rock, flip it over, and have it land in this area where everything else hasn't been disturbed? Seems very unlikely to me.

But someone placing it there does seem likely? A meteorite that we didn't detect hitting the planet seems likely? Of those 3 choices the rover kicking it up seems most likely.

Oh, I wasn't saying any of the other explanations seemed likely. In fact, the most likely thing I've seen suggested is some kind of wind phenomena.

I guess wind is a possibility but that must have been a heck of breeze. Also I thought the rover was monitoring local conditions. Seems like a breeze big enough to move a rock would have gotten the sensors attention.

If it were "wind", then how come none of the other (much smaller) rocks moved...at all?

Perhaps the wind didn't move the rock. My guess is the rock was covered with dirt/dust which the wind blew off and exposed the rock.

 

[NCCommish]

The rover has a bad wheel and they have trouble steering it. It easily could have dislodged a nearby rock on its last pass.

It's hilarious that it says they have no idea how it got there...right before offering several explanations for exactly how it could have ended up there.

If the rover has a top speed of 0.05 mph, how is it going to dislodge a rock, flip it over, and have it land in this area where everything else hasn't been disturbed? Seems very unlikely to me.

But someone placing it there does seem likely? A meteorite that we didn't detect hitting the planet seems likely? Of those 3 choices the rover kicking it up seems most likely.

Oh, I wasn't saying any of the other explanations seemed likely. In fact, the most likely thing I've seen suggested is some kind of wind phenomena.

I guess wind is a possibility but that must have been a heck of breeze. Also I thought the rover was monitoring local conditions. Seems like a breeze big enough to move a rock would have gotten the sensors attention.

If it were "wind", then how come none of the other (much smaller) rocks moved...at all?

Perhaps the wind didn't move the rock. My guess is the rock was covered with dirt/dust which the wind blew off and exposed the rock.

There is a before and after shot. There is nothing in the before shot to suggest there is a rock sitting there. Covered with dust or otherwise.

 

[E Street Brat]

So just to be clear, NASA says this thing is weird and like nothing we've seen before. FFA rules that that is incorrect and NASA is wrong in their assumptions.

Good work again, FFA!

Okay, next on the FFA agenda

Why Do Pulsars Pulse?

Pulsars are distant, rapidly spinning neutron stars that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation at regular intervals, like a rotating lighthouse beam sweeping over a shoreline. Although the first one was discovered in 1967, scientists have for decades struggled to understand what causes these stars to pulse—and, for that matter, what causes pulsars to occasionally stop pulsing. In 2008, though, when one pulsar suddenly shut off for 580 days, scientists’ observations allowed them to determine that the “on” and “off” periods are somehow related to magnetic currents slowing down the stars’ spin. Astronomers are still at work trying to understand why these magnetic currents fluctuate in the first place.

 

[CBusAlex]

I mean, we've all got cell phone cameras and camcorders have been around for decades, and we've only caught one or two real meteor strikes on film, ever... that big one in Russia a couple years back, maybe another... and how many others? Crazy to think how unlikely it is we drop a camera on another planet and happen to catch just the slightest indication of one while we're there.

Meteors hit the Earth all the time; most of them are just too small to notice or they burn up in the atmosphere. Mars' atmosphere is thinner than Earth's, so it's certainly plausible that more of the small ones actually make it to the surface, and they wouldn't necessarily leave a crater or register any kind of seismic event.

 

[Don Quixote]

So, I guess this was nothing... http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-051

Researchers have determined the now-infamous Martian rock resembling a jelly doughnut, dubbed Pinnacle Island, is a piece of a larger rock broken and moved by the wheel of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in early January.

Only about 1.5 inches wide (4 centimeters), the white-rimmed, red-centered rock caused a stir last month when it appeared in an image the rover took Jan. 8 at a location where it was not present four days earlier.

More recent images show the original piece of rock struck by the rover's wheel, slightly uphill from where Pinnacle Island came to rest.

"Once we moved Opportunity a short distance, after inspecting Pinnacle Island, we could see directly uphill an overturned rock that has the same unusual appearance," said Opportunity Deputy Principal Investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. "We drove over it. We can see the track. That's where Pinnacle Island came from."

Examination of Pinnacle Island revealed high levels of elements such as manganese and sulfur, suggesting these water-soluble ingredients were concentrated in the rock by the action of water. "This may have happened just beneath the surface relatively recently," Arvidson said, "or it may have happened deeper below ground longer ago and then, by serendipity, erosion stripped away material above it and made it accessible to our wheels."

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

It was just over an inch wide?

Important bit of info there.

 

[Apes with Guns]

China LOST their rover. Explain that, science!

 

[Doubtingthomas]

So lame.

 

[shadyridr]

So just to be clear, NASA says this thing is weird and like nothing we've seen before. FFA rules that that is incorrect and NASA is wrong in their assumptions.

Good work again, FFA!

FFA 1 NASA 0

 

[GroveDiesel]

NASA is a bunch of attention hores.

 

[DiStefano]

This smells like a cover-up. Actually, one of the television crew moved it with his foot in that secret hangar in Area 51.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

It's a simulation.

 

[T Bell]

It's a simulation.

Continuity problem. They need to get their acts together over there in the studio.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

I think the rock is probably Jesus.

http://www.thepetrock.20m.com/images/jesus_rock.png

 

[NCCommish]

China LOST their rover. Explain that, science!

They found it again. It was just taking a smoke break.

 

[NCCommish]

So just to be clear, NASA says this thing is weird and like nothing we've seen before. FFA rules that that is incorrect and NASA is wrong in their assumptions.

Good work again, FFA!

FFA 1 NASA 0

Who you going to trust? Us or a bunch of rocket surgeons?

 

[Apes with Guns]

China LOST their rover. Explain that, science!

They found it again. It was just taking a smoke break.

made me think of Kids In the Hall.

Bruce: okay. These guys, smoke.

Mark: They smoke.

Bruce: Yeah!

Mark: Wow.

Bruce: And there *bad*! And you know what??? They taught a dog to smoke! Do you believe that?

Mark: Sure, I believe that.

Bruce: Yeah, well it's true! And they taught him to beg for cigarettes! Door to door! So right away when this poor little devil would ring your door bell with his paws, you'd know right away what he wanted! So you'd give him a cigarette, and he'd take it back to these guys that waited by the fence to smoke, and they didn't care who saw them smoke! These guys sure smoked!

Mark: Really.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Could it be a Martian's campfire? A UFO? A rival planet's rover cooking along on the horizon with sterno?

What appear as glints of light on new photos from NASA's Mars Curiosity rover probably are just a reflection, a glare on a lens or a technical error, but that hasn't stopped speculation about just what whatever-it-is is.

"This could indicate there is intelligent life below the ground and uses light as we do," read a post on ufosightingsdaily.com. "There is not a glare from the sun, nor is it an artifact of the photo process.”

Earth Will Line Up Directly With the Sun and Mars Tonight

The rover’s images, which were taken on April 2 and 3, appear to show a light shining from the surface of Mars.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/life-mars-explain-mars-rover-picture/story?id=23242163

 

[grateful zed]

we've found our jet !!!

 

[Sarnoff]

Could it be a Martian's campfire? A UFO? A rival planet's rover cooking along on the horizon with sterno?

What appear as glints of light on new photos from NASA's Mars Curiosity rover probably are just a reflection, a glare on a lens or a technical error, but that hasn't stopped speculation about just what whatever-it-is is.

"This could indicate there is intelligent life below the ground and uses light as we do," read a post on ufosightingsdaily.com. "There is not a glare from the sun, nor is it an artifact of the photo process.”

Earth Will Line Up Directly With the Sun and Mars Tonight

The rover’s images, which were taken on April 2 and 3, appear to show a light shining from the surface of Mars.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/life-mars-explain-mars-rover-picture/story?id=23242163

It's a cosmic ray hitting the imaging sensor. Happens all the time