What's That Next To Mars Rover?

[GreenGuy]

Is it a flower? A piece of debris blown by the wind? (http://www.rense.com/general96/marsthing.html)

http://www.rense.com/general96/mars3.jpg

[mojo]

someones litter is anothers treasure...;)

[ghostrider]

we earth humans trash everywhere we go ... mars is no exception ...

[Little Ishta]

someones litter is anothers treasure...;)

I needed that chuckle! It does look like a wrapper of some kind as I look at it..... Mmmmm.... some kind of burger wrap? LOL

[Eagle Scout]

I left that there yesterday when I was out walking !

I will go back and pick it up........sorry.

[ghostrider]

I left that there yesterday when I was out walking !

I will go back and pick it up........sorry.

I saw you drop it , I tried to wave but you were busy with your iphone ... lol

[Sunny-side-up]

Lol Eagle Scout - ghostrider haha.

Nice area of very level/flat Crazy-Paving BTW

[cloud9]

There's another thread about this but in those other photographs the object looks like stone and the talk about a stone "appearing" there whereas here it seems metallic, what's up with that?

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Yep, it's official:
NewScientist: Hollow 'doughnut' rock appears in Mars rover's path
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24898-hollow-doughnut-rock-appears-in-mars-rovers-path.html

In this picture:
http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn24898/dn24898-1_1000.jpg
we may see some interesting details...
On the left picture there is a number of pebbles looking very "clean". On the right picture some of that pebbles are still there but slightly "dusted". Some are missing. The "doughnut" rock looks rather clean. If it was clicked by the rover's wheels it should be dusted like other pebbles.

If it was wind pushing stones, all pebbles from left picture should be missing from the right picture...

The meteorite impact is another possible explanation.

Or Martians :)

Here is "same" picture from earlier PA thread:
http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/blogs/dnews-files-2014-01-mystery-mars-rock-670x440-140117-jpg.jpg
There is no apparent "dusting" of some pebbles seen in the first pair of pictures linked at the beginning of my post.

I am confused :confused:

[GNC Harteveld]

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00522/mcam/0522ML2062005000E1_DXXX.jpg

Good example of fake sand, can you spot it?

[Operator]

we earth humans trash everywhere we go ... mars is no exception ...

No, it wasn't an earth human this time ... sorry
I will keep my dog on its leash next time :o

[conk]

Good example of fake sand, can you spot it?At the top, yes. Good eye! Very poor job of brushing that in.

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00522/mcam/0522ML2062005000E1_DXXX.jpg

Good example of fake sand, can you spot it?It may be a dune, look at this photo:
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2014/01/dingogap.jpg(note: NASA site was experiencing some problems at the time of this post, above image is linked from WiReD magazine website (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/02/wired-space-photo-of-the-day-feb-2014#slide-id-523081:full))