Rover Curiosity Discovers Australia-Shaped Rock On Mars

astroengine writes: "NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has begun science operations in a new area of study nicknamed 'the Kimberly' after the Western Australian region. But in a new image uploaded to the Mars Science Laboratory raw image archive, it seems 'the Kimberly' is a little more Australian than mission managers originally thought. As spotted by @CoUdErMaNn on Twitter, Curiosity's Navcam photographed a rather interesting-looking rock formation just in front of the rover. The rock, which appears to have been formed through some erosion process, will likely fascinate geologists for some time. But at first glance the rock also appears to take the shape of Australia."

Re:This is Fantastic!

[Jeff Flanagan]

Most likely that life will be giant spiders.

Re:

[LifesABeach]

So the Land Down Under, is seen on the Land Out Yonder?

Re:

[PA23]

I love humans...always seeing patterns in things that aren't there

Re:

[Mr0bvious]

Especially when this looks nothing like the shape of Australia.

Re:

[Razgorov Prikazka]

Australians?
You probably mean Austrians. The people in Austria are either called Mr./Mrs Aboriginal or Mr./Mrs Convict. The guy's next door from Switzerland are called Australians.
Dont blame me for getting my topography wrong, it is about as accurate as that stone looks like Australia!

Re:

[msauve]

That stone looks more like a horseshoe crab than Australia.

Re:

[DemoLiter3]

Looks more like Antarctica to me...

Re:

[SQLGuru]

Looks more like the Y U No guy (facing left, with his mouth open).

Re:

[cffrost]

The guy's next door from Switzerland are called Australians.

Shouldn't the guy's next door from Switzerland be called "the door from Switzerland that will replace the guy's current door?"

Re:

[Wild Wizard]

it is about as accurate as that stone looks like Australia!

So true, as an Australian I can not see the resemblance at all. Perhaps the comment was made by one of these people who failed geography in school and don't even know what the basic shape is.

Aha!

[DRMShill]

Proof that Australia exists! Your move atheists.

Re:Aha!

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Atheist response: Now that an Australia-shaped rock has been found on Mars, it becomes clear that Australian Christians should stop worshiping the yet-unproven Christian God and start worshiping the Martian rock that 1) could have created Australia in its own image, 2) and - unlike the Christian God - provably exists.

Re:

[Kjella]

2) and - unlike the Christian God - provably exists.

You mean like those dinosaur bones? All part of God's ruse to see if we'll pick fictio^H^H^H^H^Haith over fact.

Re:

[Ol Olsoc]

2) and - unlike the Christian God - provably exists.

You mean like those dinosaur bones? All part of God's ruse to see if we'll pick fictio^H^H^H^H^Haith over fact.

Those are called Jesus Puppies you insensitive clod

Re:

[Oligonicella]

Actual atheist response: It's a fucking rock and doesn't prove any damned thing about Australia.

Re:

[RockDoctor]

Actual atheist AND geologist response : it's still a fucking rock, and trying to make my head believe that it looks like Australia hurts my head.

It has a bit of "desert varnish" on the surface, by the looks of things.

Re:

[Solandri]

it becomes clear that Australian Christians

Don't be silly. As everyone knows, Australia is entirely peopled with criminals.

This neither proves nor disproves the existence of

[gestalt_n_pepper]

Watch your epistemology, now. It only proves that Australia can be conceived of. Still, a major discovery, since many of us weren't even convinced of that.

Re:

[DRMShill]

Christian Australianist response: Your virginity only goes to demonstrate the love God and Australia have for us.

I'm trying

[OzPeter]

But no matter how I squint my eyes I can't see Australia in that rock.

Re:

[frovingslosh]

How can you NOT see Australia in it? After all, Australia is the continent that looks like a rock.

Re:

[LifesABeach]

Ok, when will someone see Jesus, and or Mary on some random arrangement of rocks on Mars?

Re:I'm trying

[mikael]

They're doing it all the time at "abovetopsecret.com"

Light source seen on Mars: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/... [abovetopsecret.com]

Ammonite fossil seen on Mars: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/... [abovetopsecret.com]

Mystery rock found on Mars: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/... [abovetopsecret.com]

Stone Hut seen on Mars: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/... [abovetopsecret.com]

Re:

[rtb61]

I don't see Australia is the rock because I choose not to offend Taswegians, not unless you want one of these haunting your night https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com].

Re:

[dkman]

You're doing it wrong. You squint your eyes when looking for Asia. Stand on your head to see the land down under.

Oh take it easy. I'm not being serious so stop acting offended.

For comparison see google maps [google.com]. There are definite similarities, but it's not an exact match. If you rotate Australia 90 degrees to the left the juts on the left look right, but the the curve of the right side is wrong.

So honestly, you are right that it doesn't "look like" Australia, but the summary only says that at a g

Re:

[sjwt]

It barely managers a comparison, its got two peeks at one end.. and one of those peaks splits into two more..

Re:

[PPH]

Oh come on now! It's just to the East of the rock that looks like Africa.

Re:

[jfengel]

It's not squinting, it's the mental rotation. You're viewing it from a point to the south-east. The bottom edge of the rock in the photo is roughly the east coast. The notch in the lower left is roughly the Great Bight.

The distinctive northern tip of Queensland is entirely absent, and in fact the whole "north coast" of the rock is Just Plain Wrong. You really have to be kinda desperate to want to see it. But for that matter, you kinda have to be desperate to consider this news.

Re:

[GumphMaster]

Or perhaps you are looking from a point to the northeast of a mirror reversed far north Queensland coast. The large notch is the Gulf of Carpentaria with Cape York Peninsula to the right, Arnhem Land/Northern Territory to its left, and the Kimberley coast trailing off around the back. As usual, Tasmania has just been dropped. It is as much Australia as the face on Mars is facial.

Re:

[prowler1]

Pretty much what I thought. No matter how much I turn my head and squint, I can not get that rock to look anything like the shape of Australia.

Re:

[Cito]

But without squinting I can sure see that rock in Australia!

Re:

[ignavus]

But no matter how I squint my eyes I can't see Australia in that rock.

Perhaps you need to take a closer look.

In related news ...

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

... All Indian restaurants are serving nans shaped like Sri Lanka.

Come on, people. Do something useful, like looking for that damned missing air liner. Looking at clouds and seeing various animals used to be a childhood past time of mine. But giving press time like this is ridiculous.

Re:

[kamapuaa]

You stay away from my nanna

Re:

[JustOK]

Bamnanna! Bamnanna! Bamnanna!

Re:

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Is google that fast? After posting this, I got curious about why the nans are shaped like Sri Lanka. So I googled it. The first hit was the parent post, time stamped nine minutes ago. Is google that fast?

https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]

Re:

[Hydrated Wombat]

Yes. Next test of google's speed: "flurtle wurtle jurtle turtle." Maybe we could get everyone to learn arbitrary subjects by spreading rumors about a code hidden in Euclid's elements that successfully predicts all major aspects of traditional geometry. Incidentally, it is normally spelled "naan"

Re:

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

When I looked at it, it had that post. Time stamp was 3 hours ago.

https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]

Re:

[Maritz]

You want the science team who manage the curiosity rover to go and look for MH370?

Re:

[OhSoLaMeow]

A farmer in Idaho has found another potato shaped like Gerald Ford's head.

Well, let's keep looking...

[jeffb (2.718)]

Let's see if we can spot the maps of Kzin, Down, Jinx...

Re:

[Jeff Flanagan]

That's the 1st thing I thought of, and it's been decades since I read Ringworld.

Re:

[sjwt]

OB Niven, FTW!

OMG!

[in10se]

Dear Slashdot,

Please consider your audience. This might be the top "science" story on Hollywood Insider, but on Slashdot it's just insulting.

Re:

[geekmux]

Dear Slashdot,

Please consider your audience. This might be the top "science" story on Hollywood Insider, but on Slashdot it's just insulting.

Yes, let's get back to the more important things, like interviews with gun-toting, drug-running pimps bribing their way around the world who swear they don't deal with the sex trade, yet know everything about it...

(clearly he knew his audience)

Re:

[RivenAleem]

Perhaps the first 1/2 million people to sign up to /. were 'scientists' but ever since then the quality of users has gone too mainstream.

o rly?

[Anonymous Coward]

Has it found any shaped Jesus yet?

What about North Queensland?

[heretic108]

I can only guess that this is Australia after North Queensland has seceded off into its own banana republic

Earth meteorites on Mars?

[RevWaldo]

Redonkulus as this story is, it did get me to wondering:

We've found a fair share of Mars meteorites on Earth. How likely is it that it works the other way around?

.

Re:

[GodfatherofSoul]

Speaking as a layman, I'd say less likely? Mars is closer to the Asteroid belt and Jupiter's orbit where space rocks might be wobbled into Mars' path. Second, Earth has more gravity and and atmosphere making it harder for objects to escape. Third, the Sun is on the "opposite" side so the most influencial object in the solar system is going to tug rocks flung from Earth in the wrong direction.

Re:

[DarwinSurvivor]

I think Mars's tendency to throw off meteorites has a lot to do with it's very thin atmosphere and significantly lower gravity (compared to earth).

sheesh

[spirit_fingers]

And next week the big news will be they found a rock in the shape of Justin Bieber's ass. Can we please not devote precious pixels to such inanities? It's not like browser pages grow on trees.

Put it on Ebay

[avandesande]

This would be highlight of my Australian shaped rock collection

However...

[jellomizer]

The rock above it looks like TOS Romulan War Bird. The little one below it look like a bird wing.

inb4...

[Guest316]

In before formation shaped vaguely like Jebus discovered.

Bonus points for the first Slashdotter...

[istartedi]

Bonus points for the first Slashdotter who finds a Mars-shaped rock in Australia. Picture or it didn't happen.

Can't be

[Megane]

It can't be Australia. It's got no Vegemite on it.

In other news, Tasmania is now confirmed to not exist.

Excuse me, but that's Jersey

[wonkey_monkey]

Bloody Australians, stealing all our rocks. This is clearly a rock the shape of Jersey [wikipedia.org]. And it's a lot closer in size.

No, wait, it's actually just a bloody rock. If you can't think of anything more interesting to report on a Mars rock than "it's vaguely Australia-shaped," you don't have a story.

Ha Pareidolia

[aepervius]

Without you, how would we ever see jesus in a taco ? Or other places *cough* Like there [kinja-img.com] *cough*

Offs

[pbjones]

It's a rock! It takes a pretty stoned mind to call it Australia. And Tasmania misses out again!

Symmetry...

[Tablizer]

Well, I found a Mars-shaped rock in Australia. [janatitus.com]

Re:

[bloodhawk]

except for Russel Crowe, we are actually rather happy to return him to NZ and America is also welcome to keep Mel Gibson permanently too.

Re:

[Tablizer]

shhhhh, you are hurting my mod points, dude. IxNay the actsFay.

WOW!!!!

[stonebit]

What's next, a rock that looks like Jesus on the cross? How is this news?

This likely...

[jpellino]

...explains more about Australia than it does about Mars.

It's missing the Gulf of Carpentaria

[mark-t]

If it had that feature, the resemblance would be much more striking.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Presumably the rock was carved during an ice age [wikipedia.org].

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Australia?

[Trogre]

At a stretch, perhaps there's a passing resemblance. Personally, I think it bears more resemblance to the Millennium Falcon.

Global warming ocean rise won't be kind

[Tablizer]

Oh yeah? My genitals are shaped like Florida.

Re:

[wonkey_monkey]

You need to see a doctor, miss.

Only to those who are geographically challenged

[turkeyfish]

One might pretend that the chunk missing from the rock on one side looks like the Gulf of Carpentaria, but there is no corresponding Great Australian Bight on the other side.

This article only provides evidence of possibly three things: 1) to many in the media and general public are geographically challenged or 2) the Mars Rover Mission is desperate to find a handle on maintaining public interest and relevance or 3) Slahdot has once again found yet another way for slashdoters to waste their time by entertain

Only Australia?

[jgoemat]

When are they launching the mission to check the other side of mars for a rock shaped like 'merica?