Posted on 04/09/2014 4:59:38 AM PDT by 12th_Monkey
Scientists are throwing cold water on yet another purported "alien" sighting by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. Though UFO enthusiasts may beg to differ, mission team members say bright flashes of light visible in Mars photos taken by the Curiosity rover on April 2 and April 3 almost certainly have a perfectly ordinary explanation.
"One possibility is that the light is the glint from a rock surface reflecting the sun. When these images were taken each day, the sun was in the same direction as the bright spot, west-northwest from the rover, and relatively low in the sky," Justin Maki, the lead for Curiosity's engineering cameras, told Space.com via email.
"The rover science team is also looking at the possibility that the bright spots could be sunlight reaching the camera's CCD [charge-coupled device] directly through a vent hole in the camera housing, which has happened previously on other cameras on Curiosity and other Mars rovers when the geometry of the incoming sunlight relative to the camera is precisely aligned," added Maki, who is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We think it's either a vent-hole light leak or a glinty rock."
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Thats one way to get us their in a hurry...PROFIT!
out gassing from an ancient Taco bell
really looks weird.
And I would think it would show up again around the same time of day the picture was taken.
It’s just weird.
I’m sure Obama will take credit for it.
Strange. there is probably some reasonable explanation for this, but something shiny is not going to be likely seen like that, at that angle.
Interesting is an understatement.
It looks like it is more than just a reflection, imho.
I agree. A glint would likely only be seen at an upward angle rather than at ground. Unless this thing is monolithic and the sun is at the horizon behind the rover’s back.
It looks like a point source of bright light that was distorted by the lens system. Cropping of the photo makes this less than obvious.
I agree. It looks like it’s coming out of the ground. Strange, just strange
Possible, but that isn’t a camera from Best Buy. Video processing artifact, maybe, but it’s weird, whatever it is.
It looks like a methane release. Better send the EPA there, NOW.
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