Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover • Hacker News Board

Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover

#21

Post by bloddyfool » Fri, Jan 17, 2014, 5:52 PM UTC

It just fell from the top of the mountain or whatever that rock is on? There seems to be a slope...

Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover

#22

Post by ryanmcbride » Fri, Jan 17, 2014, 5:54 PM UTC

The locals are upset at our occupation and are throwing rocks at us. Pretty obvious really.

Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover

#23

Post by aeon10 » Fri, Jan 17, 2014, 5:54 PM UTC

Couldnt it have been wind? or is the whether on mars really calm.

Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover

#24

Post by joshdick » Fri, Jan 17, 2014, 6:03 PM UTC

Could the rock have been blown there by the wind?

Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover

#25

Post by ksmiley » Fri, Jan 17, 2014, 6:05 PM UTC

aeon10 wrote: post #23

Couldnt it have been wind? or is the whether on mars really calm.

Mars does have wind. In fact, dust storms have been known to last for weeks and encompass nearly the entire planet.

However, I don't think the wind is a likely culprit. If the wind was strong enough to knock over a rock, it would also be strong enough to blow a lot of dust around. That would be very noticeable to anyone watching the rover's feed, and would surely have been mentioned in the article.

Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover

#26

Post by cjensen » Fri, Jan 17, 2014, 6:06 PM UTC

aeon10 wrote: post #23

Couldnt it have been wind? or is the whether on mars really calm.

The atmosphere is very thin, so even a fast wind doesn't push much.

Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover

#27

Post by computerbob » Fri, Jan 17, 2014, 6:08 PM UTC

abruzzi wrote: post #9

I'm probably crazy, but I've been staring at the two images for five minutes and can't see anything in one that isn't in the other, unless it is obscured by the annoying "view related gallery"button. EDIT: Ok, half the time I load the page, the page works and I see the rock, but the other half of the time, the image is shifted down, the top half of the display box is black, and the "rock" is off screen...

Link to the image directly. I also had problems with the gallery.

http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/blogs/dnews-files-2014-01-myste...

Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover

#28

Post by m3mnoch » Fri, Jan 17, 2014, 6:15 PM UTC

aeon10 wrote: post #23

Couldnt it have been wind? or is the whether on mars really calm.

probably not since all the other rocks (many an order of magnitude smaller) are still in their same places.

Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover

#29

Post by dclowd9901 » Fri, Jan 17, 2014, 6:17 PM UTC

ryanmcbride wrote: post #22

The locals are upset at our occupation and are throwing rocks at us. Pretty obvious really.

Just wait 'til we start rolling our buses through there.

(Sorry, I don't usually make such Reddit-esque comments on here, but I couldn't resist)

Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover

#30

Post by cl8ton » Fri, Jan 17, 2014, 6:17 PM UTC

They mentioned meteorite impact ejecta as a possibility. Doesn't the rover have seismic sensors they could reference?