
Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover - ck2
http://news.discovery.com/space/mystery-rock-appears-in-front-of-mars-rover-140117.htm
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abruzzi
I'm probably crazy, but I've been staring at the two images for five minutes
and can't see anything in one that isn't in the other, unless it is obscured
by the annoying "view related gallery"button.

EDIT: Ok, half the time I load the page, the page works and I see the rock,
but the other half of the time, the image is shifted down, the top half of the
display box is black, and the "rock" is off screen...

~~~
sisk
You're not crazy.

Psst. Discovery folks. You've got yourself a race condition. You're
calculating a `margin-top` to center an image vertically irrespective of
whether that image has loaded. You either need to explicitly set the width and
height as attributes on the image (good for preventing reflow anyway) or hold
off on calculating your dimensions until after the image has loaded. You could
even just wait for window load (instead of DOMContentLoaded).

EDIT: Here's an untested, hacky fix. Not an ideal solution but concise and
without having to change anything.
[https://gist.github.com/anonymous/c40e8baf679aad65cb2c](https://gist.github.com/anonymous/c40e8baf679aad65cb2c)

~~~
runn1ng
CSS has _race conditions_?

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ehsanu1
It's JS, check the gist. The race condition is with image loading. I don't
think CSS has race conditions, but someone please prove me wrong here :)

~~~
troels
I suppose implementation could have, but since the language is declarative, I
think that could rightfully be considered a bug.

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jerf
I have to admit I laughed at this:

"Only two options have so far been identified as the rock’s source: 1) The
rover either “flipped” the object as it maneuvered or, 2) it landed there,
right in front of the rover, after a nearby meteorite impact event."

So, you know, our leading theories are that either the rover did it somehow,
or, approximately 8-10 orders of magnitude less likely, we just witnessed a
meteor strike. Really, nothing in between those two?

~~~
krapp
What else could it be?

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BrandonMarc
Earthquake. Oops, crap, no, um ... Mars-quake.

~~~
krapp
I guess, but I would hope that would've been detectable.

~~~
kaybe
It also would be quite remarkable since Mars is tectonically inactive at
current state of knowledge.

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ryanmcbride
The locals are upset at our occupation and are throwing rocks at us. Pretty
obvious really.

~~~
codingtheone
I think that's the unsaid part of the story, everyone secretly believes that
some intelligent being placed that rock as a peace token (otherwise this kind
of news won't make headlines)

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smoyer
When I look at both pictures, it seems as though the shape of the rock was
there before it appeared ... almost as though it oozed up out of the surface.

(Note: I know this isn't at all likely or even possible and just think it's an
interesting trick of the eye)

~~~
jumbled
I thought a similar thing, imagining mud getting squeezed up between two
rocks.

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scrumper
How big a deal is it, scientifically speaking, that the rover has access to
the freshly-exposed underside of the rock?

~~~
forktheif
Pretty big.

I've often wondered why they don't send a dragline digger to Mars, so they can
dig a decent trench. When Spirit's wheel broke and they started dragging it
along, digging a little trench, they made a nice discovery and that was with
something not designed to dig at all.

If they could get a few feet down, who knows what they could find?!

~~~
hahainternet
The Exomars project will land a 2 metre vertical drill on the surface,
sampling much deeper than anything done so far.

It's just a question of priorities. Drilling 4cm into a rock with a specific
surface abrasion tool is a long way from plunging a 2 metre metal shaft into
unknown terrain. Engineering this so it has no chance of jamming, breaking,
overheating etc is not gonna be a trivial task. How do you lubricate a drill
without contaminating the environment and with such a wide temperature
variation?

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thaumasiotes
What exactly is the downside of contaminating the environment?

~~~
Ma8ee
Makes it harder to what compunds are indigenous and what you just brought
yourself. No use shouting Eureka over some organic compound in a hole you just
spilled oil in.

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BigTuna
It's worth noting for the record that the photos were not taken from the same
vantage point. The parallax seems to indicate that the camera position was
higher in elevation in the second photo. Just something to keep in mind when
examining the photos closely for very small differences.

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joeframbach
I find it interesting that there is no better word to describe
"tiddlywinking", and that this obscure game has become part of our vocabulary
for this very rare circumstance.

~~~
mogrim
Hardly an obscure game, or an obscure word. At least not in the UK.

~~~
lovemenot
Perhaps the reigning champion could come forward to consult on surface
hardness, body shape, concentrated mass, trajectory and wrist-action.
Personally I cannot see that rock being tiddlywinked at all. Though I love the
theory for coining a new verb.

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3rd3
Here are the raw images of sol 3540:
[http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p3540_text...](http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p3540_text.html)
Sol 3528:

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cl8ton
They mentioned meteorite impact ejecta as a possibility. Doesn't the rover
have seismic sensors they could reference?

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etanazir
NASA is just scratching the surface.

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aeon10
Couldnt it have been wind? or is the whether on mars really calm.

~~~
ksmiley
Mars does have wind. In fact, dust storms have been known to last for weeks
and encompass nearly the entire planet.

However, I don't think the wind is a likely culprit. If the wind was strong
enough to knock over a rock, it would also be strong enough to blow a lot of
dust around. That would be very noticeable to anyone watching the rover's
feed, and would surely have been mentioned in the article.

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mattezell
"“So my best guess for this rock … is that it’s something that was nearby,”
said Squyres. “I must stress that I’m guessing now, but I think it happened
when the rover did a turn in place a meter or two from where this rock now
lies.”

Opportunity’s front right steering actuator has stopped working, so Squyres
identified that as the possible culprit behind the whole mystery."

Reading a lot of speculation, but this seems pretty plausible - without the
need for anything crazy like aliens, subterranean oozing or a rock falling
from space and just so happening to land in front of the rover... But, Hey!
Perhaps it is martian-cow dung afterall!

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nkvl
Clearer images:

no rock
[http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/3528/1P441385599EF...](http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/3528/1P441385599EFFCADPP2385R1M1.JPG)

rock
[http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/3540/1P442453196EF...](http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/3540/1P442453196EFFCAEFP2594L2M1.JPG)

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mrfusion
Would it be crazy to suggest it might not be a rock? They're always looking
for life on Mars, could this be some kind of animal?

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dredmorbius
Looking at the images, there appears to be a disturbed region above and to the
left of the mystery rock, suggesting it (or something) might have impacted the
ground there.

The question I've got is whether there's any sort of local slope down which
the rock could have fallen on its own. That's hardly clear from the photos.

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bloddyfool
It just fell from the top of the mountain or whatever that rock is on? There
seems to be a slope...

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mr-roboto
If you had watched Apollo 18
([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772240/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772240/))
you would know what that rock is.

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Gonzih
Article is very close to some tabloid IMHO. Not much actual theories, but a
lot of bold statements like "Alien Robots That Left Their Mark on Mars"
without much explanation.

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semerda
Didn't this jelly doughnut appear a few days later? I thought that mars has an
active environment i.e. dust storms and an atmosphere. So stuff is bound to
move?

~~~
lnanek2
Do you see rocks the size of a donut blowing around on Earth as well? No. Sure
we have more gravity, but also a thicker atmosphere. I don't think they blow
around on Mars either.

~~~
semerda
How about the rocks that move in the death valley the size of 10 x donuts.
Also vertical swirling column of air could move it. And we know those exist on
Mars since those were responsible for cleaning Spirit's solar panels (rover).

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joshdick
Could the rock have been blown there by the wind?

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bitwize
A wild ROCK appears!

OPPORTUNITY used TAKE SAMPLE.

It's super effective!

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return0
Some angry locals missed the target

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kowdermeister
This is a warning. The first.

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jayzalowitz
Aliens?

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ssdfsdf
Clearly a martian rat.

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tunap
Rover Abrasion Tool?

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ssdfsdf
I was going for Rock Abrasion Tool...

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niix
I think it's Martians trolling us.

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funemployed
A wild ROCK appears?

~~~
jboggan
I can't help but hearing Frank Zappa while reading this news. Strangely this
music really helps me concentrate on coding.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukbu9dmmzJg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukbu9dmmzJg)

