89 
Curiosity has found something weird. It’s shiny, probably made of metal, and is sticking straight out of a rock like a hand. Has NASA just found signs of intelligent life on Mars? Is it a tool of some kind? Or maybe the metallic foot of a long-dead robot Martian?
NASA doesn’t actually know. The current thinking is that it’s made of some sort of metal, as it’s shiny, and the fact that it’s not covered in dust means it’s probably easily cleaned by the wind, and therefore not rough. It could just be a bit of the rock that’s more resistant to erosion, or some sort of substance that’s actually growing on the rock. Who knows?
Of course, alien hunters are going nuts over this, but I’m sure it’s something explainable. Probably. Either that or it’s a piece of a Cylon Centurion that crash-landed on Mars after an epic interstellar battle. [Universe Today]
Thanks Jeff!
The First Colour Photo of Martian Landscape from the Mars Curiosity Rover
Curiosity's First X-Ray Analysis Reveals the Origins of Martian Soil
What a Giant Martian Mountain Would Look Like on Earth
its obvious
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ntxfdb60vhdv40a/term.jpg
I thought otherwise
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lkl3rbCJww1qjvxfho1_400.png
we’re dooooooomed i tell you doooooooooooooooooooooooooooomed
PLEASE let it be part of an alien spaceship / robot / probe
That’s the robot originally supposed to deliver your nexus 4. It crashed hence the delay :p
Well it deserves to rot on Mars for ever and ever then!
(Actually I’m all Nexus’ed up now, 16Gb Nexus, official ‘bumper’ and qi wireless charging pad that works!)
Same with the Nexus4 but where the hell did you manage to get a QI wireless charging pad that actually works!? I tried one that apparently did but no joy
… I thought QI was suppost to be a standard so I’m very confused on the matter
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ANA8TA0/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00
is the one I bought and it works like a dream (although it does have a bright blue flashing light which I’ve covered with bluetack!)
Is the bumper worth it or does it add even more unwanted size to the phone and ruin the look?
Now I’m wise to exactly how easily the Nexus 4 can slip of surfaces I always only ever leave it on flat surfaces, otherwise it’ll be in my pocket or on my desk.
I guess the bumper will stop shattering if you drop it accidentally onto a tiled or concrete floor, but I’m pretty careful.
not sure on the bumper to be honest…doesn’t ruin look or add size really BUT over £20 (inc.postage) for small amount of protection….I’m on the fence to be honest.
probably the beagle rovers deceased robotic corpse
Mjölnir?
Its the hatch into the secret nazi martian base.
If you bang on it, someone will come out and shake their fist a the rover.
The secret nazi bunker?
I thought that was on the dark side of the moon.
They got lost on the way, so they built it there.
If they’re all like Julia Dietze Im all for a Nazi invasion of some kind
http://moviecarpet.com/the-first-four-minutes-from-sci-fi-comedy-iron-sky-2012-03-16.html
no complaints here
The amount of metallic crap floating around out in space since we started firing stuff into it makes it pretty viably terrestrial in origin. It would also explain why it’s embedded into the rock, since it would have fallen through the atmosphere and cut into it while hot from the descent.
Shouldn’t it have vaporized instead?
Mars has a thinner atmosphere so its easier for things to get through. This is why the Sky Crane was built to slow the decent instead of relying on the chute.
I am no expert on how it should look in this situation though.
Mass Effect technology obviously. Did no-one read the codexes (codi?)?
Prepare for indoctrination
We’ve got time, it’s alright
Maybe its one of god’s nails that he used when he ‘created’ the entire universe, only to leave little old us on this speck of dust
Can you not see the sign above it that say “Turn to Terra-form”?
Could be C3PO’s rod.
Couldn’t it be parts of the various probes that have crashed on Mars ?
I doubt we need to involve Aliens yet, we have several secret space programs operating out of the Earth.
It’s Captain Solo frozen in Carbonite. That’s his gun sticking out.
His gun ehhh?
His… blaster….
Oh come on, there can only be 3 scenarios:
a) It’s man-made
b) It’s a piece of naturally-formed metal and has eroded more slowly than the surrounding rock, or
c) It’s alien
NASA should be able to fairly quickly cross the first 2 possibilities off the list, so come on NASA, is it alien or not?!
Totally agree.. really annoys me that they don’t just take another look. Its something Alien that we can’t explain.. so have a closer look. Who cares it will put back the mission.. are we not there to explore and if so then explore!
They ARE taking a look at it. You can rest assured they have jumped on this like crazy.
However, they learnt a long time ago to publish fast and honestly so nobody claims they are “covering up” the alien metal found on mars.
Plus it takes days to get Curiosity to DO anything. It’s not like they are out for a jaunt in the national park and can just stop and poke it with a stick.
This is a remote robot billions of miles away operating mostly under it’s own code. NOT an RC buggy.
They WILL look at it in detail, they WILL tell us what it is. Just give them some time.
I really hope they do. But they didnt do anything with the so called flower object found. http://www.space.com/19143-mars-flower-curiosity-rover-photos.html
What is there even any other option left?!?
Who gives a shit if it’s an alien from another planet.. it hit mars!
That’s a Optimus Prime’s pen….eee
… little finger! LOL
What isn’t this being covered by a single other publication? Specifically, the national news media? I consider it as important a story as horse meat lasagne, or the question of what is in ‘chicken’ curry if it isn’t chicken or rabbit? #theotherwhitemeat
Metalloids are rare but not uncommon and Mars has a history of high volcanic activity and plenty of meteor impacts so it could come from lots of places. Would be cool if it was something else but Occam almost always rules in geology.
It’s clearly a stopcock. Which explains where all the water went.
It is most likely hematite (iron ore) See:
http://www.mii.org/Minerals/Minpics1/Hematite2.jpg
Iron ore.
It’s Excalibur! Curiosity will pull the sword and be the robot king of Mars. Er, I suppose it’s already the robot king of Mars. It’s not like any other robots are there to challenge its claim. Surely Curiosity could take out Opportunity in a robot death match, especially while sporting Excalibur.
“…and is sticking straight out of a rock like a hand.”
Do hands do that much? -stick out of rocks?