Science! By James Plafke Apr. 9, 2014 12:31 pm
The Curiosity Rover reached the Kimberley Waypoint on the surface of Mars, a spot where it prepares to drill for evidence of alien life on the seemingly dead planet. The Kimberley Waypoint was chosen as a drilling spot due to its variation in geography, which could return some unexpected results. Before the rover begins drilling, it will take a bunch of readings to determine where the optimal spot would be. However, when snapping photos while surveying the area, Curiosity showed what appeared to be an artificial glowing light off in the distance. As you can imagine, a certain portion of the internet flipped out at the prospect of alien life.
In the image above, you can clearly see what seems to be a tiny spotlight shining into the sky from underneath (or behind) Martian terrain. As can be expected, certain kinds of sites ran the photo proclaiming the light as emanating from some type of alien source, and blames NASA for not investigating further. However, NASA has a pretty good reason for not investigating further: it’s not an artificial light.
There are two (highly likely) explanations for the light. First, planetary scientists immediately assumed the glint was a cosmic ray — a charged subatomic particle. On Earth, they’d be floating around and messing up all of our selfies if not for Earth’s atmosphere absorbing them. In space, though, they roam relatively free and have a propensity to mess with cameras. When a cosmic ray hits the electronic detector of a camera, it creates some energy on a pixel (or more), and the detector does its job: notices and reports the energy. So, the light would just be a camera artifact. In fact, the camera that took the picture is actually two cameras, and the other lens that snapped the same exact shot does not display the artificial light (seen below) — a single cosmic ray could not hit both cameras at the same time.
The above GIF demonstrates the same picture taken from two different cameras at the same time. Only one has the artifact. Credit: Slate
As Phil Plait points out, this kind of thing happens all the time. If it’s not a cosmic ray, though, a NASA scientist stated that it could simply be light glinting off a rock, though he isn’t sure if this is the case since the glint only appears in one photo.
Whatever the case may be — a common cosmic ray or light commonly glinting off a rock — it’s (perhaps unfortunately) not alien life, or some long-forgotten alien flashlight left on the surface Mars. Instead, it’s just a run-of-the-mill picture of an alien planet that we took with a space robot. Super boring, right?
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In the image above, you can clearly see what seems to be a tiny spotlight shining into the sky from underneath (or behind) Martian terrain. As can be expected, certain kinds of sites ran the photo proclaiming the light as emanating from some type of alien source, and blames NASA for not investigating further. However, NASA has a pretty good reason for not investigating further: it’s not an artificial light.
There are two (highly likely) explanations for the light. First, planetary scientists immediately assumed the glint was a cosmic ray — a charged subatomic particle. On Earth, they’d be floating around and messing up all of our selfies if not for Earth’s atmosphere absorbing them. In space, though, they roam relatively free and have a propensity to mess with cameras. When a cosmic ray hits the electronic detector of a camera, it creates some energy on a pixel (or more), and the detector does its job: notices and reports the energy. So, the light would just be a camera artifact. In fact, the camera that took the picture is actually two cameras, and the other lens that snapped the same exact shot does not display the artificial light (seen below) — a single cosmic ray could not hit both cameras at the same time.
The above GIF demonstrates the same picture taken from two different cameras at the same time. Only one has the artifact. Credit: SlateAs Phil Plait points out, this kind of thing happens all the time. If it’s not a cosmic ray, though, a NASA scientist stated that it could simply be light glinting off a rock, though he isn’t sure if this is the case since the glint only appears in one photo.
Whatever the case may be — a common cosmic ray or light commonly glinting off a rock — it’s (perhaps unfortunately) not alien life, or some long-forgotten alien flashlight left on the surface Mars. Instead, it’s just a run-of-the-mill picture of an alien planet that we took with a space robot. Super boring, right?
More...
