[Phil V.]

I don't mean to pester all you guys & gals but here's a neat stereo pic. As I was browsing the latest from Spirit sol 45 I saw what I thought was a small cluster of "bad data" . . . a white mark in http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/n/045/2N130364919EFF0900P1817L0M1.JPG or perhaps a lens problem. But then I looked at it's right "twin" shot through the right lens. . . a similar white "burn". A kid would run over to the shiny object. Will JPL?

[Simmy2.5]

YES, more files to add to the Hoagland conspiracy list! The rock with the "hole" above, and this one.

[LibWhacker]

Looks kind of like the "rabbit" Opportunity saw. That turned out to be torn fabric from the lander, or at least that seemed to be the consensus here on FR. I don't know if NASA ever addressed the issue. The rabbit had a shadow. I don't see one here. I think you're correct about it being a splotch of dropped data.

Check this out, though, Phil . . . Click on your link and look at that big white rock under magnification on the right hand side (about 1/4 of the way down from the top of the picture) . . . Immediately to the right of that rock, it looks like Richard Simmons is peeking out of a hidey hole at the Spirit rover! I can just see the top of his head and his eyes. LOL . . . I'm seeing things again.

[GeronL]

Privatize the Hubble??

[DB]

You're not pestering me!

Thanks for all the pings!

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Something relatively bright in a scene can cause saturation in cameras of the type used in the rovers. Often the "blaze" is oriented along a vertical line of pixels. So the only real question is: what's bright or shiny that's causing this saturation? Somebody drop a quarter?

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[ElkGroveDan]

As a former photographer who has worked in darkrooms and closely examined negatives, camera lenses and enlarger lenses, I have to say that a gut instinct tells me this "object" is probably not really there.

This thing when examined closely has no dimension to it. There is no shadow around it or anything to indicate that it is anything other than an interruption in the arrangement of pixels. Without explaining how it got from one lens to the other, I speculate that it looks like a fleck of paint, cellophane or other minuscule piece of debris that somehow has introduced itself into the photo process and has moved between photos.

I will note that the left and right shots are supposed to have been taken simultaneously, yet this object appears to have rotated 180 degrees between shots.

Something just ain't right here, but ten bucks and my left nut says that thing is not actually on the surface of Mars.

[CJ Wolf]

interesting.

[Djarum]

Wow! Something is definitely overloading the digital camera there.