Mystery 'doughnut' materializes in front of Mars rover: 'OH MY GOD! It wasn't there before!'

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are puzzled by a mysterious rock that has appeared in front of the Opportunity rover, Curiosity's never-say-die older sibling. Opportunity rock Is someone – or something – screwing with NASA? "Mars keeps throwing new stuff at us!" NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist …

[John Brown (no body)]

No, that would make it a metric size rather than "imperial" (Hah! USAians) sized.

Ring doughnuts, custard doughnuts, jam doughnuts, iced doughnuts and various other types of doughnuts all have their very own DIN/ISO standard size. This rock is very specifically jelly doughnut sized which in proper metric measurements is 1.023 jam doughnuts.

[Neil Craig]

Though the "doughnut" isn't in the 1st picture there is a slight rounded shadow in exactly the same spot. This cannot be coincidence.

So it could be some chemical process whereby the shadow has grown into something solid or, perhaps less credibly, it could be an effect of different shadows producing a more distinct image, like the way the inside of a face mask can look like a projecting face.

Ir the chemical process might be life. I totally exclude the possibility of meteorite ir falling rock because it is statistically impossible it could land exactly on the spot of a previous depression.

[NomNomNom]

I think it's pretty obvious the rock was cloaked in the first shot. I am going to take a guess that a separate race of reptilians (perhaps a different species?) exists on mars different to the ones on earth that control our governments. This doesn't bode well for the 2016 Olympics.

[Captain Scarlet]

Ah

So thats where my pet rock got to

[lawndart]

says

If you have a set of wheels you should take the opportunity to do doughnuts at least once in your life.

[Winkypop]

I don't know what it is but...

... I'd step over it if I saw it on the footpath.

Here or on Mars

[rhinoceros]

Go Home NSA !

..or meet your fate!

This is what was left after we were done with some Russian lander.

[n13ldo]

It/he/she is doing whatever it takes to get a ride home:

http://xkcd.com/695/

[The Real Tony Smith]

The stone moved....

OK, who blinked?

[Tom 260]

Re: The stone moved....

Now we've looked at the recorded image of it on our screens, does that mean we'll start weeping bits of stone too? (never did work out why it was only with the recorded image, and not looking at the regular ones directly)

[The last doughnut]

Nothing to do with me

No, honestly

[sisk]

Dang it!

I KNEW I shouldn't have sat my doughnut on that teleport pad.....

[AbeSapian]

It's All Fun and Games Until Somebody Gets Hurt

Maybe it's just the Martians yanking the JPL's chain.

[Semtex451]

The Appliance of Science

So now we know where the missing socks go

This is why people get stuck in washing machines, they're just trying to go home.

[Richard Scratcher]

I say zap it with the frikkin' laser and see if it flinches.

[mrjobby]

... indefatigable ...

Awesome (if subtle) War of the Worlds reference!

Dun, dun-daaah!

[tomban]

Re: ... indefatigable ...

I came here just to say that, too:

"All night long the Martians were hammering and stirring, sleepless, indefatigable, at work upon the machines they were making ready, and ever and again a puff of greenish-white smoke whirled up to the starlit sky."

[Mark 85]

If it is a donut

Can a policeman be far behind?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are those rock creatures from "Apollo 18"...

I guess the defensive, insanity-inducing, crab-like rock critters mean the colonization of Mars is off limits, unless we can afford the weight allowance to bring along cocktail sauce, a pot of boiling water, crab forks and nutcrackers.

Then again, based on the box office, I might be the only one who saw that movie (documentary??). Thank God for late-night cable!

[Anonymous Coward]

Alternatively...

There are Martians, but they are about 1/16 of an inch tall, and the "jelly donut" is their attempt to build a pyramid-like temple/peace offering to the "great metal god" during one of it's hibernation periods.

"Do not crush us under your wheels of wrath, oh mighty one!!"

[Stevie]

Bah!

OR ... the image processing interns are a bunch of scallywags with too much time on their hands who have performed an unauthorized installation of GIMP.

[JustWondering]

Excuse me

Why is no one concerned that it appears this rock is resting in an area covered with paving stones?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re. Excuse me

How come that the analysis indicates unusual soil composition compared to the surrounding rock?

Methinks it is the dried out remnants of a fruiting body, a bit like an Earth puffball.

We don't know how big it was to begin with, maybe thats what happened to the Russian probe, only a lot bigger and pushed it onto its side, causing it to fail mid signal.

[BongoJoe]

Life on Mars

That looks like a an old white dog turd on an old cobbled Northern back alley.

[Anonymous Coward]

its in the first picture too!

look at the first picture closely and the object is there too, the sun has simply moved and cast a different shadow!

[Dixie Nourmous]

No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized, as someone with a microscope

studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered

the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds

immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and

surely, they drew their plans against us.

[Anonymous Coward]

Circular shape appearing on ground on Mars .... help - its the Mysterons!

[You have not yet created a handle]

Angles

The two pictures are taken at very slightly different angles aren't they?

Either that or there is a lot of new and disappearing dust/rock/stone from the second picture.. Most notable around 6-7 o'clock of the jelly doughnut around the edge of the paving slab..

[Jim 59]

Rock

Opportunity roadkill

[herman]

Hmm, looks like a Martian camel dropping to me...

[Anonymous Coward]

Moles

Moles