Light on Mars

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Foxglove

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Here's the explanation scientists have come up with:
1. Cosmic ray. Never mind this effect is seen in TWO DIFFERENT photos, taken from different angles.
2. Rock glinting. Would have to be damn well polished.
3. Damaged camera. How come the damage disappears in later photos?
Ockham's razor's fine, but some folks will go to great lengths, even defy logic, only to avoid admitting: 'Hell, I dunno what that thing is'
 

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Foxglove said:
Here's the explanation scientists have come up with:
1. Cosmic ray. Never mind this effect is seen in TWO DIFFERENT photos, taken from different angles.
Click to expand...

Source for the claim that it appears in multiple photos? It does not appear in an image shot by the other separate camera in the NAVCAM sensor at the same time.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/04/08/curiosity_photo_light_seen_on_mars_is_a_camera_artifact_not_a_real_one.html

Cosmic ray is clearly the leading explanation.
 
Didn't the Apollo astronauts, once beyond the Van Allen belts, 'see' the cosmic radiation similarly?
 
Mono-lith?

Monkey see, Monkey do-do?

Do digital cameras register radiation as 'light' in this way -as humans are said to do (migraine aura-style)?
 
Foxglove said:
2. Rock glinting. Would have to be damn well polished.
Click to expand...

Not at all unlikely. I once took a commercial jet and, flying out of *I* *think* Salt Lake City, was nearly blinded by a bright flash from way off in the distance. Through a telephoto lens and blowing-up of the resulting photos... it was the reflection of the sun off of a single window in a house up on a mountainside. Distance would have been on the order to five to ten *miles.* The window was likely somewhat concave, and I happened to just be at the focus. So a slightly concave shiny rock - big slab of mica, say, or volcanic glass - could certainly produce a glint like this.

Ockham's razor's fine, but some folks will go to great lengths, even defy logic, only to avoid admitting: 'Hell, I dunno what that thing is'
Click to expand...
 

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Here's the source of the information about two different photos taken at different angles and times:



news.discovery.com/space/mystery-light-on-mars-spotted-by-curiosity-140408.htm
 
Orionblamblam said:
Foxglove said:
2. Rock glinting. Would have to be damn well polished.
Click to expand...

Not at all unlikely. I once took a commercial jet and, flying out of *I* *think* Salt Lake City, was nearly blinded by a bright flash from way off in the distance. Through a telephoto lens and blowing-up of the resulting photos... it was the reflection of the sun off of a single window in a house up on a mountainside. Distance would have been on the order to five to ten *miles.* The window was likely somewhat concave, and I happened to just be at the focus. So a slightly concave shiny rock - big slab of mica, say, or volcanic glass - could certainly produce a glint like this.

Ockham's razor's fine, but some folks will go to great lengths, even defy logic, only to avoid admitting: 'Hell, I dunno what that thing is'
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Nargles are just as reasonable an explanation as rock glint. Did you notice the low light of the scene? Do you get such reflections at dusk? And show me another picture of Mars surface with a reflection like this.
 
Yeah, that's weird. But it's even more weird that the light would be seen both times in only one of the two NAVCAM cameras. It does not seem plausible that a reflection or point light source would be so focused that it can't be seen by the second camera just a few inches away, twice.

With the second image, I'm leaning toward the idea that there's something wrong with the NAVCAM's right-hand camera.
 

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