Mysterious Martian rock that suddenly appear

Mars does have a variety of mystery and filled with question marks. The presence of icebergs, traces of life in the past, water resources, and the latest is a stone that suddenly appears in a photograph.

Recent photographs collected by the Panoramic Camera (PanCam) instrument on the NASA Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity reveal a mysterious phenomenon occurring on the surface of our neighboring world. Images taken just days apart revealed a rock had popped out right in front of the robot. (Picture from: http://news.softpedia.com/)

Some of the photos recently taken by the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity reveals the new mysteries of the red planet. In a photo shows a medium-sized rock that suddenly appeared on the right of Opportunity.

The robotic Mars rover that controlled by a team of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. At one time the Opportunity photographing a landscape with a Panoramic Camera (Pancam) on a plot of land on SOL 3528.

The NASA Mars Exploration Rover 
(MER) Opportunity. (Picture 
from: http://www.zmescience.com/)

And about 12 days later, on SOL 3540, the Opportunity returned to the region and photographed in the same position. There is a surprise, it turns out a stone that suddenly appeared. Whereas before there is no stone in there. To note, the SOL is the unit to calculate time in Mars. One day on Mars is 40 minutes faster than a day on Earth.

JPL team necessarily surprised by the presence of a mysterious stone that suddenly appeared. Because, the JPL team never once find such events during the 10 years examined the Mars with Opportunity.

"The size is like a donut. Was really a surprise, at that time we said 'wait a minute, the stone was not there before, it was not possible. Dear God, the stone was not there before!', And we were all very surprised," said Steve Squyers, a NASA researcher as reported by Softpedia, on Monday, January 20, 2014.

According to NASA's JPL researchers, there are two possible causes for the presence of the mysterious stone suddenly. The first is there because the rock bouncing by the Opportunity iron wheels while it's running. But strangely, the only move that rock alone, without a shift in the other rocks caused by Opportunity.

The second possibility, the stone comes from meteor fragments that passing around the Mars. The meteor fragments burned and then fell to the Martian surface. For this reason, is not yet known whether there is a celestial body passing during the sol 3528 to sol 3540 on Mars. Or, if the stone is moved due to the interference of other creatures which indicates the existence of life on Mars? Who knows? *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | SOFTPEDIA | THE VERGE]

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