So the ‘shopped the arm and shadow out of the picture or was this really taken by some technician in the Mojave Desert somewhere? (like the moon landing, it’s a hoax)
LOL!
As I was looking at the photo I couldn’t help but think that Mars does look a lot like a desert on Earth.
" The MAHLI frames used exclude sections that show the arm itself and so MAHLI and the robotic arm are not seen. "
The rover holds the camera out on a mast/arm and takes multiple shots from different angles/positions over a short period of time. They have extra overlapping coverage from similar angles/positions so when they piece it together into the big picture they leave out the arm views. Also they subtly warp the pictures so the edges will fit together mostly seamlessly...I think photoshop will do most of this, tho I haven't tried. My smartphone does it for selfie panoramas...
No, the shadow is in the picture, next to the wheel on the right. But it's artfully composed, you might think it's the shadow of the wheel. For extra points you should try to discern where the cut line is for the arm itself. It's in the image.