Didn't this jelly doughnut appear a few days later? I thought that mars has an active environment i.e. dust storms and an atmosphere. So stuff is bound to move?
Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover
71–80 of 93 posts
Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover
#72Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover
#73I have to admit I laughed at this: "Only two options have so far been identified as the rock’s source: 1) The rover either “flipped” the object as it maneuvered or, 2) it landed there, right in front of the rover, after a nearby meteorite impact event." So, you know, our leading theories are that either the rover did it somehow, or, approximately 8-10 orders of magnitude less likely, we just witnessed a meteor strike…
Pic 1 shows an indentation where the jelly sits in Pic 2. What if the light is hitting the rock on a different angle creating this effect of a raised surface.. maybe?
Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover
#74Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover
#75I have to admit I laughed at this: "Only two options have so far been identified as the rock’s source: 1) The rover either “flipped” the object as it maneuvered or, 2) it landed there, right in front of the rover, after a nearby meteorite impact event." So, you know, our leading theories are that either the rover did it somehow, or, approximately 8-10 orders of magnitude less likely, we just witnessed a meteor strike…
> Really, nothing in between those two? Well the first thing that came to my mind when reading the title was the phenomena of moving rocks in Nevada [1]. It could be similar but unlike them this doesn't seem to leave any trails. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stone
Let's go with false flag operation designed to get Mars rover in the news this week. Finally a real scandal for Obama.
Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover
#76Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover
#77I find it interesting that there is no better word to describe "tiddlywinking", and that this obscure game has become part of our vocabulary for this very rare circumstance.
Hardly an obscure game, or an obscure word. At least not in the UK.
Perhaps the reigning champion could come forward to consult on surface hardness, body shape, concentrated mass, trajectory and wrist-action. Personally I cannot see that rock being tiddlywinked at all. Though I love the theory for coining a new verb.
Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover
#78Didn't this jelly doughnut appear a few days later? I thought that mars has an active environment i.e. dust storms and an atmosphere. So stuff is bound to move?
Do you see rocks the size of a donut blowing around on Earth as well? No. Sure we have more gravity, but also a thicker atmosphere. I don't think they blow around on Mars either.
Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover
#79A wild ROCK appears!
OPPORTUNITY used TAKE SAMPLE.
It's super effective!
Re: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover
#80I have to admit I laughed at this: "Only two options have so far been identified as the rock’s source: 1) The rover either “flipped” the object as it maneuvered or, 2) it landed there, right in front of the rover, after a nearby meteorite impact event." So, you know, our leading theories are that either the rover did it somehow, or, approximately 8-10 orders of magnitude less likely, we just witnessed a meteor strike…
The likelihood of the rover being responsible is really something only the guys actually controlling it could estimate.
I wouldn't discard weather as the cause, and I'd consider weather long before meteorites. While the martian atmosphere is very thin, it packs a good punch speed-wise. Maybe in edge cases that could be enough to pick up small rocks and have them rain down somewhere else (similar phenomena exist on Earth).
Another hypothesis would be that the rock was ejected by a gas vent. I have no idea about the temperature conditions at the rover site, but a gaseous plume could carry solid material with it if the release was forceful enough - showering the surrounding area with rocky material.
But all things being equal, I'd bet on the rover.