NASA photo captures strange bright light coming out of Mars

spingsprong · on April 8, 2014

That photo was taken from one of the navcams. Fortunately, the navcams come in pairs.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/proj/msl/redops/ods/...

Notice the blip is in only one cam image. That pretty strongly suggests it's a camera artefact and not something real on mars.

madlag · on April 8, 2014

It's usual for CCD sensors in space to have such artifacts, due to energetic particles. It's true for a camera on Mars too, as the atmosphere is way too thin to protect from solar particles. http://www.eso.org/~ohainaut/ccd/CCD_artifacts.html

zamalek · on April 8, 2014

Could have also been something as benign as a dust plume. Still, it's far more likely it's an artifact.

cratermoon · on April 8, 2014

Wackjob sees UFOs, suggests conspiracy theory. Film at 11.