- A beforehand ignored picture from the Curiosity rover reveals an odd “jellyfish” on Mars. Is it an actual anomaly or an imaging artifact?
- The “jellyfish” is a small, darkish form that appears like it’s sitting on high of a distant rocky hill.
- There are numerous doable explanations, however some form of imaging artifact is the most definitely.
The ‘jellyfish’ on Mars
The rovers on Mars generally see issues that look actually odd. Usually, it’s weird rocks or different surface features. However generally it’s within the sky. These often grow to be pixel artifacts or different glitches within the cameras. And there’s a brand new case that’s going viral on social media. The picture is from the Curiosity rover, in Gale crater, and is definitely from August 20, 2023 (sol 3924 for the rover).
However it was largely ignored till Kari Sivertzen posted it on X on August 12, 2026. The picture reveals what seems like a “jellyfish” form within the distance. The “tentacles” appear like they’re touching the highest of a rocky hill. What’s it actually?
Object or imaging artifact?
It seems intriguing, so what is that this mysterious “jellyfish”? Notably, photographs that Curiosity took lower than two minutes earlier, trying in the identical course, didn’t present the odd form.
The unique picture is a uncooked, grayscale picture, so not the very best decision. And the form solely covers about 15 pixels, so fairly tiny. The picture is from Curiosity’s proper navigation digital camera. The identical digital camera then took one other picture about 78 minutes later and the form was gone.
Theories in regards to the ‘jellyfish’ on Mars
Because the form is absent in subsequent photographs, that reveals it isn’t a everlasting function of the panorama. With that in thoughts, there are just a few theories, as additionally mentioned by Amit Surti on Medium.
The chances embrace a cosmic ray artifact, an digital or transmission artifact and what astronomers would name a transient bodily phenomenon.
Cosmic ray artifact?
Firstly: may the “jellyfish” be a cosmic ray artifact? Each the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers have seen many of those earlier than. As Surti described on Medium:
Curiosity’s cameras function in a high-radiation setting. Excessive-energy particles generally known as cosmic rays always bombard CCD detectors in area. When a cosmic ray strikes the silicon grid throughout a calibration step referred to as a bias body, it deposits a localized cost. The digital camera’s processing pipeline later subtracts the bias measurement from the precise publicity. That subtraction converts the intense cost from the particle strike right into a darkish residual imprint.
The bodily motion of cost alongside the detector’s pixel columns, a course of referred to as cost diffusion, mixed with the particular readout course, may produce skinny downward-pointing extensions from that darkish core. That may clarify the jellyfish form. And since the interplay is momentary slightly than persistent harm, the artifact would seem in just one publicity.
An analogous form was additionally seen in a navigational digital camera picture in 2022, sol 3613. It’s a compelling clarification, however we’d want full engineering logs to substantiate it or not.
Astrophysicist explains mysterious Mars “jellyfish”. Video by way of Astraveo/ YouTube.
Digital or transmission artifact?
The form is also because of an digital or transmission glitch. From Medium:
A pixel worth can change at a number of factors between the digital camera sensor and the ultimate picture file on Earth. Inside the readout electronics, contained in the flight laptop’s storage, throughout onboard compression, all through the downlink transmission or throughout floor processing.
Particular failure modes that produce localized darkish areas embrace: short-term pedestal drift within the electronics, single-event upsets within the picture buffer from radiation, temperature spikes from close by rover {hardware} triggering dark-current surges, packet loss throughout transmission producing empty darkish blocks and minor mismatches in flat-field calibration information leaving regional residuals.
This might produce the same darkish form that seems in a single picture, however not the earlier one or the following one.
Transient bodily phenomena
Lastly, what about one thing bodily, however impermanent? It might be a mud particle or perhaps a dust devil. However to substantiate this, knowledge from wind sensors or the left navigation digital camera can be wanted … and each are lacking on this case.
The shortage of corroborating knowledge reveals how tough it may be to watch an “anomaly” on Mars and take a look at to determine what it’s when there is just one low-resolution picture accessible and never a lot different knowledge. And most definitely, we are going to see extra oddities like this sooner or later.
Apparently, some UAP – Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena – have been described as jellyfish-like through the years. Similar to this one from over a U.S. joint operations base in Iraq in 2018. Or this one – the floating mind – from over the Atlantic on January 1, 2020.
Backside line: A beforehand ignored picture from the Curiosity rover reveals an odd “jellyfish” on Mars. Is it an actual anomaly or an imaging artifact?
By way of:
Read more: Dragon bones on Mars? Curiosity spies weird rocks
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