Curiosity Image Shows 'Jellyfish' Object on Mars 10 Seconds After Clear Shot

Q: What transient Martian phenomenon could appear in a rover's camera frame and vanish completely less than 10 seconds later?

The most plausible transient phenomenon is a small dust devil or a brief gust lifting dust or debris into a shape that looked solid in a single frame, then disappeared almost immediately. That fits Mars better than an exotic explanation because dust devils are common in Gale Crater and can appear and vanish quickly depending on wind, lighting, and the rover camera’s angle. A thin column or clump of lofted dust seen edge-on could look dark and spindly for one image and be invisible seconds later. But the stronger scientific reading is still that the object may not be a real Martian phenomenon at all. Because it appears in only one frame, with no confirming follow-up image, NASA scientists would typically treat it as more likely to be an imaging artefact, compression glitch, bad pixel cluster, or a lighting effect. Single-frame anomalies in rover imagery often turn out to be ordinary camera behavior or pareidolia rather than a physical object. Other ideas raised online, including a UFO, tripod-like structure, or Ingenuity helicopter, have little support. Ingenuity was operating far away in Jezero Crater, and no other mission data backs an unusual object at Gale. So if it was something real on Mars, a fleeting dust-related event is the best natural candidate. If judged by rover-imaging standards, however, a camera artefact remains the likeliest explanation.

3 articles · Updated · Metro.co.uk · Aug 17

A resurfaced Curiosity photo from August 2023 shows a dark, spindly object on Gale Crater’s slopes that did not appear in an image taken less than 10 seconds earlier.
The black-and-white panorama was captured 3,924 Martian days into the rover’s mission by its Right Navigation Camera, and it was the final image taken that day.
Kari Sivertzen, who flagged the image on X last week after combing rover archives, said the object was not Ingenuity, which was operating about 2,300 miles away with Perseverance.
Mars researcher Jean Ward called it a possible UFO but said any identification is speculative; skeptics said it could be a lighting illusion or a camera artifact such as corrupted pixels.
The sighting fits a long pattern of Mars images sparking claims about strange shapes, while Curiosity’s actual mission since 2012 has been to search Gale Crater for signs of ancient life.