Martians Messin’ With NASA Rover? 

              A true Martian “now you don’t see it, and now you do” bit of mystery is fueling the alien conspiracy experts demanding an answer to who left a jelly doughnut right in front of Mars rover Opportunity.

       Even Star Trek renowned actor William Shatner has publically asked NASA what’s up with the mystery rock on Mars. Shatner poised the question via Twitter during a NASA press conference on Opportunity’s latest discovery.

       “Have you ruled out Martian rock throwers?” tweeted Shatner, whose role as Capt. Kirk on the Starship Enterprise is one of Hollywood’s iconic characters.  

       To get you up to speed, while perched in its stationary winter position, Opportunity photographed the rocks near it one day, and 12 days later on Jan. 8 a mystery rock appeared.  The white rock has a red center, and is about the size and shape of a jelly doughnut. The information has made its rounds in the UFO circles, fueling the Internet with all kinds of speculation.

       Mars Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres said the object, called “Pinnacle Rock,” is just that, a stony rock—but unlike any seen before. The space scientist thinks the rock is flipped over, exposing an underside that might not have seen sunlight for millions of years. Squyres answered actor Shatner’s tweet by saying he’d look out for any Martians. 

       Conspiracy writer Rhawn Joseph, has filed a suit against NASA for withholding information about the obviously alien object. The advocate of extraterrestrial life says the Martian rock is a living thing that is growing, like a fungus. In papers filed in a Florida court, Joseph calls for NASA to thoroughly examine the object.  This is exactly what they are doing. 

What is it?

       Keep in mind, this new, “now you see it, yesterday you didn’t” Martian rock is in front of Opportunity, an old rover.  The new rover, Curiosity, is on the other side of Mars in an ancient stream bed at the base of a mountain.

The facts so far and NASA’s best hunch as to what’s happen:

       Analysis with Opportunity’s arm of scientific instruments shows the rock to be nothing like any rocks sampled before. And it literally appeared out of nowhere.  Analysis has shown the rock contains twice the amount of magnesium than any other on Mars. It also has sulfur and manganese—all components of volcanic activity like occurred on Mars two billion years ago.

       Hunches where the Martian “jelly doughnut” came from are:

       -- One of the many frequent dust devils in this part of Mars deposited it Wizard of Oz style.  These tiny twisters have cleaned off the solar panels of Opportunity many times, allowing the batteries to recharge.

       -- The stone is debris from a nearby meteor impact that happened between Opportunity’s Martian days 3,528 and 3,540;

-- The rock was kicked out of one of six wheels of the golf cart-sized Opportunity.  Maybe it’s been stuck awhile during the amazing rover’s 25-mile, 10 year trek across a once wet lake;

-- Aliens left it as a subtle message to mess with us humans on Earth. Don’t laugh. There are extraterrestrial investigators that are dead serious about this. .

This isn’t one of those trick-of-the-light mirages that perpetuated the phony “Face on Mars” hysteria of the 1980s.  That famous image by the 1976 Viking 1 orbiter has been photographed dozens of times by the sophisticated orbiters of the 21^st Century and revealed to be nothing more than an interesting rocky plateau.

"Face on Mars" plateau various lighting  NASA photo

As for what this Martian mystery rock will turn out to be, the verdict is still out. And Steve Squires and his team of Mars experts at Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California are on top of it, in full view of the media and social network. Thus the Jan. 23^rd press conference on Facebook and Twitter.  What was a promised 3-month job for Opportunity’s guaranteed life expectancy has turned into a decade of incredible information gathering.

Opportunity has not moved in six weeks as it waits for the Martian Summer Solstice this week on Feb. 15 and warmer weather to recharge its batteries for power to the wheels.  It is at the rim of a large crater named Endeavour.

Opportunity and its shadow

Mars has become a familiar home to a core group of less than 50 planetary scientists around the world.  They’ll figure it out…but it probably won’t satisfy those alien advocates.  Look for more news at your local grocery store rack of National Enquirer and Globe.