Official NASA Caption: Microscopic Imager Non-linearized Full frame EDR acquired on Sol 654 of Opportunity’s mission to Meridiani Planum at approximately at approximately 12:02:57 Mars local solar time, Microscopic Imager dust cover commanded to be CLOSED. NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS

Original NASA Source: Opportunity – All Raw Images Sol 654 (60 images)

What are we looking at? In this photo, there is, what appears to be, an unknown object hovering in the background. It does not appear to be a rock or other object connected to the rover.

Explanations:

Marc Dantontio, image analyst from MUFON, submitted the following explanation:

Marc Dantonio John, the object in question is not in the background because you cannot see the background in this image. If you look carefully you can see that what has been mistaken for Mars in the background is actually the surface of the vehicle itself to which the object is attached. The “Mars surface” ends to the left abruptly as the contour of the vehicle changes so you can see this is just a happenstance where being slightly out of focus made it appear to be a de focused Mars terrain. It is slightly out of focus because the micro imager is actually focused much closer on other parts of the vehicle at that moment. Mars is hopelessly out of focus.

After receiving this feedback, I was able to dig some more to determine what the actual “object was. It is, indeed, a screw on one of the arms of the rover. On Sol day 2 of the mission, the rover’s same camera captured this image:

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Note from Black Vault user Willease: I was searching through images from the Dawn mission to Vesta and stumbled on what appears to be structures near the edge in a crater. Notice the shadows…

Official NASA Caption: PIA15495: Layered Young Crater – This image from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft shows a young crater on Vesta that is 9 miles (15 kilometers) in diameter. Layering is visible in the crater walls, as are large boulders that were thrown out in the material ejected from the impact. The ejected material likely once resided deep within Vesta, since this crater formed within the deep Rheasilvia impact basin. It may provide clues to Vesta’s composition at depth.

This image was obtained by Dawn’s framing camera image was acquired on Dec. 21, 2011, during Dawn’s low-altitude mapping orbit (on average 130 miles or 210 kilometers above the surface). Rheasilvia is located at the south pole of Vesta. The image covers an area of 260 square miles (670 square kilometers).

The Dawn mission to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate’s Discovery Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn Framing Cameras have been developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The framing camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL.

What are we looking at? On the crater wall, you will see what appears to be a very tall structure, casting a long shadow.  Given the fact that not a single object appears around it – some speculate this could be artificial.

What is NASA’s Dawn Mission? During its nearly decade-long mission, the Dawn mission will study the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, celestial bodies believed to have accreted early in the history of the solar system. The mission will characterize the early solar system and the processes that dominated its formation.

Original NASA Source for photograph: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15495

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Official NASA Caption: LRV Floor? Sunstruck.

Official NASA Label: AS17-135-20680HR

What are we looking at? This photograph is from the official NASA archives of Apollo 17.  In the official index of Apollo 17 photographs, available for download below, you will find that this photograph is listed as a “blank” photograph.

However, when looking at the photo, you can clearly see it isn’t blank. What appears to be a pyramid shaped object, or structure, appears faintly in the background.  What also adds to the legitimacy of the photograph, is there is a blurry, out of focus “foreground object.” This supports the theory this is a legitimate photograph (not a “blank” photo as NASA suggests) and that there could possibly be a structure captured on film.

What do you think? Post your comments and theories below.

Original NASA Source: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/AS17-135-20680HR.jpg

Possible explanation? While looking at other photos in the sequence, it appears this could have been a bad photo of the floor of the lunar module.

On the same magazine this photo was taken, there are other “pyramid shaped” angles that may resemble a pyramid in a poor photo.

Please reference these photos:

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