Curiosity Spies Unidentified, Metallic Object On Mars 396
MrSeb writes "A few hundred million miles away on the surface of the Red Planet, Mars rover Curiosity has photographed an unidentified, shiny, metallic object. Now, before you get too excited, the most likely explanation is that bright object is part of the rover that has fallen off — or perhaps some debris from MSL Curiosity's landing on Mars, nine weeks ago. There is the distinct possibility, however, that this object is actually native to Mars, which would be far more exciting. It could be the tip of a larger object, or perhaps some kind of exotic, metallic Martian pebble (a piece of metal ore, perhaps). Close-up imagery will now be captured and analyzed, and within the next few days we should know if it's simply a piece of Curiosity — or something a whole lot more exciting."
Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Call me a cynic, but even if the entire planet was made of solid gold, it still wouldn't make it economically feasible to go there.
A puddle of water there would be way more valuable.
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The only reason we would go to Mars before we can live there is if we found life.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
The only reason we would go to Mars before we can live there is if we found life.
Or to seed life.
Just sayin...
Sooner or later, even if we find primitive life, we should start thinking about what can be done with the planet, even if it takes 1000 years to
get something to live there.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Lets say we went and put a killer whale on the moon, err Mars. For how long do you think the bacteria would be able to live on the corpse?
Do you think the bacteria would have time to evolve to be able to spread beyond the corpse before their initial food supply was depleted?
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
Do you think the bacteria would have time to evolve to be able to spread beyond the corpse before their initial food supply was depleted?
Seems like they'd evolve to more efficiently eat the whale, and then be screwed when it was gone.
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That's not how evolution works. Evolution is not a response to environmental stimuli. It happens all the time, randomly, and sometimes it benefits the lifeform and other times it doesn't.
Re:Wow (Score:4, Funny)
I'm not an ecologist, but I suspect you'd need more than a single whale too bootstrap an ecosystem on an otherwise inhospitable planet.
I'll see your whale and raise you a bowl of petunias. Is that enough?
Re:Wow (Score:4, Funny)
Whale Uplift: U r doing it wrong.
Re:Wow (Score:4, Insightful)
That's not part of next quarter's profits, nor within the tenure of any currently elected politician.
Forget it.
Re:Wow (Score:4, Insightful)
That's not part of next quarter's profits, nor within the tenure of any currently elected politician.
Forget it.
Neither is the robot that found it, and yet there it is. For fuck's sake, there is such a thing as being too cynical.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
For fuck's sake, there is such a thing as being too cynical.
I doubt that.
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"No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up."
Lily Tomlin
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
In honor of Columbus Day. We'll bring whisky and typhus.
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Then you bury it.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Which raises an interesting question:
What would be an optimal design for an artificial magnetic field for Mars that would provide the equivalent protection that we enjoy on Earth? Assuming superconducting cables, what location(s) would be suitable; what currents would be required; what danger zones would be created; and what would be the annual energy cost?
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:4, Informative)
Assuming constant radius, the mass will go up with a factor of four, and as the escape velocity is proportional to the square root of the mass, the escape velocity will end up around Earths present escape velocity.
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Nope, it would go from Drill Baby Drill!! To Launch Baby Launch!!
(sarcasm) I mean, look at all the gold up there, we can balance our national debt, hell we can buy the world! Everyone will be rich, no one won't have gold so how can people be poor if they have gold? (/sarcasm)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, look at all the gold up there, we can balance our national debt, hell we can buy the world! Everyone will be rich, no one won't have gold so how can people be poor if they have gold? (/sarcasm)
Who needs a planet full of gold when we have the Federal Reserve?
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, you're exactly correct. Investing enormous resources into digging a shiny metal out of the ground (which is mostly used for investment purposes, not for industrial uses) is a waste of resources. It's far better to use those resources and build better infrastructure than something that just sits in a vault and is never used productively. A central bank is much more efficient, also, because they can control the money supply, theoretically evening out the business cycle (though there are limits to this as we've seen recently... the rates can't really go below zero, so the ability to counter-act a huge decline in aggregate demand is limited).
Macroeconomics and monetary policy... learn it! I mean, End the Fed! Woo, Ayn Rand! Gold!
(and no, I'm not talking about unlimited monetary policy... MMT is not accurate. Deficits do matter, though not quite as much if your country controls its own currency... Going to a gold standard means you lose control over your country's currency and you may end up suffering the downward austerity spiral of countries like Spain who no longer control their currency... Versus the recovering Iceland, who do control their own currency in spite of an epic financial crisis.)
(FWIW, we probably should nationalize the Fed one of these days.)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
there is at least one model for oil/natural gas that could explain its creation based of geological processes rather then biological material breaking down
There is at least one model for child birth that involves avian delivery.
Re:Wow (Score:4, Funny)
It would shut the Libertarians up once and for all.
If there were enough energy in the universe to do that, we'd have trivial faster than c travel.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
It has happened before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Empire [wikipedia.org]
Matters began to change in the 1520s with the large-scale extraction of silver from the rich deposits of Mexico's Guanajuato region, but it was the opening of the silver mines in Mexico's Zacatecas and Bolivia's Potosi in 1546 that became legendary. During the 16th century, Spain held the equivalent of US$1.5 trillion (1990 terms) in gold and silver received from New Spain. Ultimately, however, these imports diverted investment away from other forms of industry and contributed to inflation in Spain in the last decades of the 16th century
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Yes, because wanting a smaller, less leviathonic government == wanting slavery. Thanks.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Arguing that the Constitution was designed to grow as needed is almost entirely unrelated to whether or not they thought we should have a small government. They certainly thought we should have a federal government that was restrained by the constitution and its amendments. The idea was to enumerate the powers of the federal government in the Constitution. If we wanted to expand those powers, we would have to amend the constitution through an intentionally difficult process where a super majority of states agree with the change. As of right now, neither Democrats nor Republicans respect limitations imposed on the federal government by the Constitution. They think "if 51% of people want it, we can do it!" which is little more than mob rule. This isn't exactly new but I do think it has steadily been getting worse.
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However, that doesn't mean we can't come up with some agreed upon generalizations.
Who's the 'we'? Do you have a mouse in your pocket? Does 'we' mean, you and the ditto heads? You and the Ayn Rand fan club? If 'we' is you and me, I'll have to warn you about the most I'm willing to generalize about the founding fathers is that they were white men of respectable backgrounds who were representatives of their states. Also, many of them were lawyers, some of them were slave owners. Otherwise they were a diverse group who fought fiercely over the role and responsibility of government (both
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All currency is just a way to value a certain amount of work.
Re:Wow (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Massive gold deposits would make settlement there easier, but not for economic reasons. Gold is easily alloyed and makes a great material for all sorts of things. Like electric machinery, needed to process ore, water, ventilation, etc.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Gold is easily alloyed and makes a great material for all sorts of things.
Radiation shielding.
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And if it's that easy to find, thick walled non-corroding structures for holding in your wonderful, glorious, beautiful O2...
I'll bet it has writing on it that says (Score:5, Funny)
RETURN FOR REFUND
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Re:I'll bet it has writing on it that says (Score:4, Informative)
No, no, no. Prothean.
Re:I'll bet it has writing on it that says (Score:5, Funny)
My Precious.
Re:I'll bet it has writing on it that says (Score:5, Funny)
You mean "Made in China"...
Re:I'll bet it has writing on it that says (Score:5, Funny)
It was written in ancient Sumerian. It says:
"Global warming is real, so we're gonna try moving to the next planet over."
It's carbon dated 20,000 years old.
Re:I'll bet it has writing on it that says (Score:5, Insightful)
Wouldn't you be more likely to find that on Venus?
Re:I'll bet it has writing on it that says (Score:5, Funny)
No. We have 3 rovers on Mars. 0 on Venus.
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The Russians have several on Venus.
Late-breaking news: TREASON! (Score:5, Funny)
Today the Council of Elders reports the exposure of a fifth column of traitors that has apparently existed within the intelligence directorate of world's security services. The Council neither confirms nor denies the contents of the following diplomatic transmission leaked to the blue world by rebellious spies.
12GLENELG0062: If it's actually the trigger for a trap door beneath the rover, for example, or the last remaining relic of the Martian race, then NASA obviously needs to handle it with care.
When a senior military official, apparently intoxicated after having submersed himself in the poisonous liquid that covers two thirds of the enemy world's surface, exclaimed "IT'S A TRAP", K'Breel had the Admiral's gelsacs bronzed and disposed of in the general vicinity of the invader. The Council reminds all citizens that the planetary metals recycling programme operates on a strict basis of "No deposit, no return."
Re:I'll bet it has writing on it that says (Score:5, Funny)
Hello Sweetie
Re:I'll bet it has writing on it that says (Score:5, Funny)
"Deliberately Buried" (Score:5, Interesting)
TMA-1
I left it there. (Score:5, Funny)
Dear NASA: Would you please return it to me? I dropped it there when Iwas playing fetch with my astro-dog but since that vacation in 1982, what with the economy inthe shitter and my extreme insanity and all, Italian conspiracies, etc., etc., I had pretty much given upon retrieving it.
Please mail my battery-actuated vibrating metal thing object to:
Bob S.
445 Gimlet Road
Cornhole, OH
Thanks for bringing this find to my attention, Slashdort!
Further proof (Score:5, Funny)
Proof that many of today's scientists are from the MTV generation:
"Ooooh! Shiny thing!" :)
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Bah! Beat me to it!
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Meh, you can kiss my shiny metal object.
Screw that... (Score:3)
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Whats with the discrimination against the mentally ill?
I mean what if I did go on a killing spree? Wouldn't it be better that I do it on Mars where I only have two or three possible victims, rather than on Earth where I may have dozens?
Think of the greater good.
Re:Screw that... (Score:5, Funny)
The greater good.
Re:Screw that... (Score:5, Insightful)
Statistically, mentally ill people aren't more or less likely to attack you than a normal person unless said mentally ill person is a schizophrenic female. In which case the chance is doubled.
The reason why we don't send mentally ill people is because we'd also have to send a supply of whatever medication they'll need to keep balanced and productive plus a psychiatrist for therapy.
But I think a sparse Mars colony would be perfect for my socialphobia. I'd only have to get used to at most twenty people.
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"Screws are falling out all the time; the world's an imperfect place" -- John Bender
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Volunteer anyways, it will never happen through Mars One.
I like how the gloss over the hard bits of getting and staying on Mars.
resembling a monolith? (Score:3, Funny)
About time! (Score:5, Funny)
And so begins.. (Score:3)
The Martian Goldrush of 2012 (+travel time)
If its is alien origin (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:If its is alien origin (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, becasue NASA wouldn't want the huge amount of money that would poor into the project to get there before anyone else, and the military sure wouldn't be interested.
It's in the governments, the military, and NASAs best interests to find an alien artifact, you moron.
I look forward to hearing about the as a conspiracy for the next 20 years~
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Re:If its is alien origin (Score:4, Funny)
Re:If its is alien origin (Score:4, Informative)
My Keys!! (Score:5, Funny)
The most likely explanation... (Score:5, Funny)
So Curiosity (Score:3)
Has ADD
Unobtainium! (Score:3)
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I called it first so its mine!
Bah, it clearly is unrefined Transparent Aluminum. It doesn't get clear until it is refined.
Monolith (Score:5, Funny)
It's probably just the top of a boring monolith made of some blackish metal. Nothing to see here; move along.
Shiny metal object? (Score:5, Funny)
If some tells you to bite it, don't.
A few hundred million miles away on the surface? (Score:2)
Oh, would it not have made more sense to tell us how far away the metal object was from the rover, to how far away Mars is from Earth?
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It's an Illudium-Q36 explosive space modulator (Score:5, Funny)
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Be varry varry careful (Score:4, Funny)
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Both posters should be destroyed in an Earth-shattering Kaboom.
Too shiny (Score:2)
It's sitting in a field of dust--but it doesn't appear to be dusty. If it were in one of Curiousity's tire tracks looking like that, I might believe the dust had been wiped off, but as it is, I think that the only plausible explanation is that it fell there very recently. Like, within the last day. Which strongly argues that it is indeed, a piece of Curiousity.
drop in any mailbox (Score:2)
ChemCam image, possible set up for spectroscopy? (Score:5, Informative)
I found this ChemCam [nasa.gov] image in the raw image archive [nasa.gov]. It does look like a jagged shaving of... something.
While this could just be because the ChemCam telescope/imager has the highest resolution of anything on the mast (and they don't want to move the arm now), it might also mean that they plan to zap the object with the laser and measure its composition.
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Any plausible explanation makes this very interesting find.
It's a Worm. (Score:2)
Am I the only one who sees there a bright eyed Martian worm? Soon they'll throw sheep at us, dammit.
It's a bolt, from Curiosity (Score:5, Funny)
Which is just bloody great. Now we have to work out how to change an engine mounting from 150 million miles away.
Object Likely Benign Plastic from Curiosity Rover (Score:5, Informative)
"Curiosity's main activity in the 62nd sol of the mission (Oct. 8, 2012) was to image a small, bright object on the ground using the Remote Micro-Imager of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument.
The rover team's assessment is that the bright object is something from the rover, not Martian material. It appears to be a shred of plastic material, likely benign, but it has not been definitively identified.
To proceed cautiously, the team is continuing the investigation for another day before deciding whether to resume processing of the sample in the scoop. Plans include imaging of surroundings with the Mastcam."
first! (Score:3)
First alien relic!
Gold and diamonds used to lay on the surface (Score:3)
It may seem hard to believe now, but gold, silver and diamonds used to lay on the surface of the Earth. It wasn't until man got to the point we were writing things down that we started collecting the shiny things on the surface.
All I'm suggesting is it could be naturally occurring or it could be ejecta from an impact event involving an asteroid with a high metallic content.
Don't pull it out! (Score:3)
It's a platinum screw. For God's sake, don't pull it out! The whole planet will fall apart.
New, annoying, alien life discovered (Score:3)
It's small, covered in metallic make-up and talks incessantly about itself. Much like several of my ex-girlfriends.
Monolith (Score:3)
This is an easy one. It's a monolith [wikipedia.org].
Comment removed (Score:3)
litter (Score:3)
Updated: NASA’s initial assessment is that the object is in fact a piece of plastic that has fallen off Curiosity. Further analysis will be performed before a final judgment is made.
We go, we explore, we litter!
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Yeah. Everything depends on how far down [cartoonstock.com] it goes :)
Re:C'mon man... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:C'mon man... (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, it's a (piece of a) spaceship named Curiosity. Seriously, the robot finds a metallic piece of something close to where it landed... what are the odds that part is not from Curiosity itself? (answer ~0%)
Well, its not actually very close to where it landed, at this point. And they've taken quite a few photos of the rover. What'll be interesting is if it IS a part from the rover, how did they not notice it was missing? And how did it come off? Seems more likely it'd be part of the lander, but IIRC, it didn't fly off in that direction.
I think your zero estimate is far off, if you're talking about Curiosity itself. If you're talking the whole Rube Goldberg contraption that landed it there... well, that may be a fairly low odds its not.
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