Hi!! I'm new here. Been a lurker for a long while and think you guys kick major butt. 8)

Ok, I have a question that's been bugging me and others on the net have been pointing it out as well.


Check out this NASA pic of Mars from the Spirit rover:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...a/PIA05006.jpg

Go to the very top, near the middle, and scroll your eyes down about an 2 inches or so in the middle.. and there appears to be a golden ring object (like a wedding band) there in the dirt. This is REALLY obvious.
Could this be a part of the rover that broke off or something?
What else could that be?

Not trying to start any conspiracies or anything, but just curious if that could be a part of the rover or.. really be something else.

Thanks!!

My Precious is lost! LOST! Filthy Bagginses!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

This is a good one! What ever it is, it does resemble a ring.

A part of the rover, a trick of light and shadow, something metallic in the martian soil? I'm sure that someone will be able to interpret it better than I!

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Welcome to the BABB cozmicflatfish. While we appreciate the compliment you might want to watch your language a little. The BA takes a dim view of such things (see the FAQ's).

Quite possibly. Notice that it is surrounded by darker soil which, IIRC, is where the thing was bouncing on its airbags and distrubed the soil. Something could have been jarred loose.

=D>

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I see a Hoagland pyramid sticking out of the ground and the letters A F. There is what looks like a sand dune shaped like the letter O. Is the O the ringy thingy?

No, it is not that. This thing is clearly metallic and you can see light reflected off of it. It's shiny.

I could take the pic and just clip off the rest, leaving just the ring object in it, but don't know how to do that on the computer. I'm computer illiterate as you can see, hehe.

It's really noticeable.

Helping cozmicflatfish out (I think):

LINK

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

I wonder if it could be a little peice of glass created by a meteor impact. It's certainly interesting whatever it is.

SeanF: Yup!! That's the little ringy thingy, heh.
But sadly, with the close-up, the perfect clean circle it makes, and the shadowing of it is lost. Ahh...

Could you take the pic somehow and just isolate the object as it is already in the original pic?

Thanks again for your help!!

It's hard to tell what that is. But I'm more inclined to think this is what we are seeing:

Go down the picture about the same amount as you did from the top. There you will see a rock with a round spot on it at the top right corner looking very much the same colour & brightness as the ring. Imagine that rock buried except for that lighter spot and add a darker rock smudge in the middle or bottom. Voila. Don't know if that is it but it would make more sense and since such a similar thing just happens to be found close by, chances are the Mars surface is filled with such shapes.

RBG

Here's another thought:

It's interesting that this "object" should appear so close to the airbag retraction drag marks (as indicated by the darker splotches). Possibly as the airbag itself was retracting, part of a still-billowed out section had the "opportunity" to continously rub/abrade/polish against a protusion in the ground. The ring pattern does seem to my eye to be oriented somewhat in the retraction direction.

RBG

It looks to me like "the ring" is a rock pushed into the soil by the previously inflated airbags where they exerted force against the ground as they rolled to a stop. This soil embedding produced a ridge, or "ring," of soil around the rock as it was pushed into the soil. The bright spot is not a reflection on a metal ring but just some other thing with a lighter color near the ridge of soil.

You can see exactly such airbag-induced rock embedding in the lower right corner here causing the soil to create afore said ridges around several rocks according to the shape of the rocks. This area should be very close to "the ring." The same photo with inverse shading here may help one to see the rock embedding in the lower right corner.

Image analysis is not easy. In fact, it is very difficult.

What you say is "clearly metallic" is not clear at all; all you know is that it is bright, not what it is made of. The image may be exposed for darker reddish dirt, and something whiter would look very bright (or the picture may have had the contrast adjusted that way). I'll note I spent ten years doing image analysis, and have learned many of the minefields involved.

I heard Hoagland on the radio last night making all sorts of ridiculous claims about the images. His track record with image analysis is very, very low. I will be curious to hear his nonsense tonight again on Coast to Coast AM.

Hot pixel? But I doubt it, considering the CCDs used is most definitely not off the shelf like our earthly digitals.

hmm well it's interesting whatever it is, and I think warrents a little further investigation, of course the kooks will be glad to tell you what it is, they don't need to investigate it, they are all knowing beings of light and energy and you foolish scientists with your silly research and testing should just pack your bags and go home

hehe well anyway just wanted to make a little comment on the difference between science and psudoscience

ok one more quck comment, good to see another lurker hehe I have been visiting this site for years, since about '98 I think, but I very rarely post, well until recently anyway

I'm no expert. But I've looked, and looked some more, and then I looked at SeanF's enlargement.

Maybe I'm just dense, but I'm not seeing anything to get all that excited about. Yes, there is an "object" of some sort there. I wouldn't call it metallic, and I certainly wouldn't say it was obvious. Fact of the matter, I couldn't even find it until SeanF created the enlargement.

[Hoagspeak]I'm much more interested in the 2 stones that form a straight line from the lower left to the upper right. Perhaps they are remnants of paveing stones that formed an ancient roadway?[/Hoagspeak]

As you can see from my example above, if your looking for something "unusual", your imagination can easily lead you to make false conclusions.

The Sean F enlargement does not centre on what i percieved as the "ring", although it does contain part of it.

Look at the original photo again, to the right and slightly up of the spot there is a section that is lighter than the surrounding soil and looks very much like a gold ring.

All I see is disturbed soil and iron oxide.

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Well it might be a piece of mica, reflecting the sun. The rounded rock in the foreground, about an inch below and to the right of the bright pixels, is a lot more interesting. It looks more water-smoothed than wind-smoothed to this unexpert eye.

I think it's time to send The Fellowship out to retrieve it

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It looks ringish at first glance, but looking closely it's hard to tell that it's not just some random bright spot.

Is that the highest resolution photo, or do they have sharper pictures to work with? It seems like they would want their photos as high-rez as possible, to eliminate problems like this and the "face".

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It looks later a minicrater with a bright rim.

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