Mars Rover Curiosity - "Big Bird"

[rdunk]

Ok all, an interesting anomaly on the surface of Planet Mars, found in a photo from Mars Rover Curiosity, Sol day 120. My title for this one is "Big Bird". Actually, it may not be a very big bird, but any bird on Mars should be considered a "Big Bird".

This bird is clearly visible! It has a white head, tiny eyes, yellowish beak, a brown feathery looking body, and it seems to be looking directly at the camera. This bird is located in the below link photo, slightly down from the top edge, and about 25% from the right edge toward the left.

Note, there is a shadow just to our left of the birds head that can confuse the view. That "shadow" is the dark face of a rock directly behind the bird.

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/figures/PIA16700_fig1.jpg

[deuem]

Talk about that shadow, it looks like a 5 O'clock shadow while the rest of the stones are almost noon. Did you work any of this up ? Measure them ?
Can you figure out how large the bird is?

I can't get to the link as of right now, too much traffic. Will get it another time..

Deuem

[Amaterasu]

Oh, I had fun crawling all over THAT one, rdunk!  Don't think I found Your bird unless it's the first image here:



But I did find other things of interest...  Don't know why they looked so good on My screen unless it's compression.  They're a bit blurred from the original.

Like...  This looks like some kind of weapon out of Mass Effect:




Next, what looks like a decorated vase:



I kept having the sense that I was looking at blocks of busted masonry amidst rock.  THIS one made Me even more inclined.  Looks like a piece of a counter top to the left - and a VERY cubic piece with it on the right, with other "masonry-like" stuff too:




What looks like a bit of wall:




Right there in the center almost looks like a decorated panel piece, or corner stone...




And how does something like this form, do You suppose, with that green cheeseish thing going?



Wait.  Are You pulling Our leg and this is really the moon?  [grin]

[rdunk]

Amy, the bird. which I put the locater around, is just to the right of your first pic above.

[rdunk]

Talk about that shadow, it looks like a 5 O'clock shadow while the rest of the stones are almost noon. Did you work any of this up ? Measure them ?
Can you figure out how large the bird is?

I can't get to the link as of right now, too much traffic. Will get it another time..

Deuem

Deuem, the darker spot I was referring to (as a shadow) is just at the left of the bird's head - as I said, it is actually the darkened face of a rock to the rear of the bird.

No, knowing the size of anomalies is always a problem with the Rovers. One can see that the bird is larger than the tiniest rocks, but is smaller than even some of the slightly larger rocks around it. The screenshot is magnified significantly to get a decent view of this bird.

If you can find it in the original pic, you can see how small it actually appears, as do the rocks also.. 

[deuem]

Ok, darkened face not shadow works for me... Keep going.

If you know all of the cameras details you can get close to figuring out how large it is.
Takes a lot of Math and work to get an idea.

[Amaterasu]

Amy, the bird. which I put the locater around, is just to the right of your first pic above.

Oh.  That pic wasn't there when I began My post...  Turned off the warning, so....  Ok.

[Sinny]

rdunks initial post looks like a rock, with another small rock behind it to the left.

I like the sqaure wall peices in the latter posts though 

[ArMaP]

I think the "head" of the "bird" is the right side (from our point of view) of that rock that has that dark face, just behind the "bird".

Hard to be sure with such small feature. Unfortunately, the stereo pair for this photo (and the other from the same Sol) is much smaller.

[rdunk]

There is no question about this being a bird, as it is quite obvious in the pic. Here is the same NASA pic, with a bit different color. The bird may be more seeable for some of you in this one.

It is too bad that the legs and feet are in the shadow of the bird, and thus aren't seeable, as those features would definitely "make it so" for everyone!! I will see if there is any way to brings those our a little.

[WarToad]

There is no question about this being a bird, as it is quite obvious in the pic. Here is the same NASA pic, with a bit different color. The bird may be more seeable for some of you in this one.

No, the second pic clarifies it is rocks and shadows.  The human mind is always trying to find recognizable patterns in percieved chaos.  That is the very basis of optical illusions.

[rdunk]

No, the second pic clarifies it is rocks and shadows.  The human mind is always trying to find recognizable patterns in percieved chaos.  That is the very basis of optical illusions.

So WarToad, are you saying you do not see the white head, the two tiny beady eyes, and the yellow beak, right there in the pic.? If not, what level of screen display "resolution" are you operating with? Those features are clear to me @ 2560x1440. But thus far I still can't see the feet and legs in the shadow!

[WarToad]

So WarToad, are you saying you do not see the white head, the two tiny beady eyes, and the yellow beak, right there in the pic.? If not, what level of screen display "resolution" are you operating with? Those features are clear to me @ 2560x1440. But thus far I still can't see the feet and legs in the shadow!

No.  I very very clearly see rocks of the same texture and hue as other rocks in the picture and their shadows.  I can certainly make out a bird-like shape to the whole thing in an abstract art kind of way, but it by no means is clear.  (I'm on my work computer, it's 1280 by 1024 triple screen)

The more I look at it the more I see normal landscape. (With some interesting geology and mixed rock types for sure)  But if that's not what you see, that's simply not what you see.

[Vandalis]

More animals woop. Its not called Curiosity for nothing hehe.

Had a wtf moment while looking at another image: PIA16568

"Was that a monkey I just saw??"  lol


Well It does look like one crouched down.



Few other weird thing there too. Above to the right is a weird thing, and up to the left looks like the skull of a cone head.

I wanna know if all these things are real but with rock texture pasted over by the automatic cleansing, or if there statues/petrified animals.
Hope its not just the mind playing tricks lol.

Very interesting either way.

[rdunk]

  Vandalis, I see what you are referring to that has a resemblance to a rock monkey, but the others I am not readily seeing. Always interesting to see what is in some of these pics!