ScienceSolar SystemMars RoverSpace Photos

Mars 'Rat' Won't Be Analyzed By Rover, As 'Curiosity' Gears Up For Epic Drive

Mars Rover To Turn Its Back On 'Rat'
Space.com
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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity will apparently perform no follow-up studies of a Red Planet rock that resembles a rodent, dealing a blow to the nascent field of Martian mammalogy.

The so-called "Mars rat" has generated a lot of Internet interest lately, with some UFO buffs claiming that it may be an indigenous Red Planet lifeform or an Earth rodent Curiosity carried to Mars as part of a secret experiment.

But Curiosity scientists are pretty sure that the Mars rat — which was spotted in a zoomed-in portion of a photo taken by the rover in September 2012 — is just a rock. ['Mars Rat' Photographed by Curiosity Rover (Video)]

"Clearly, it results from, you know, a lot of things like wind erosion and mechanical abrasion and breakdown chemical weathering of the rocks, as to why they get these weird shapes," Curiosity deputy project scientist Joy Crisp, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told reporters Wednesday (June 5).

So there doesn't seem to be a lot of motivation among mission scientists to investigate the Mars rat further. And the window to do so will last just a few more weeks, as the Curiosity rover is set to begin an epic drive that will take it far away from the petrified rodent.

The 1-ton robot is gearing up to embark for the base of Mount Sharp, a mysterious mountain that rises 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) into the Red Planet sky. The trek will cover about 5 miles (8 km) of straight-line distance and will likely take about a year, mission managers said.

Curiosity will begin the epic journey after it wraps up three tasks near its current location, none of which involve the Mars rat. The rover will search for differences in hydrogen abundance across two different types of bedrock, and it will investigate intriguing nearby outcrops called Point Lake and Shaler, researchers said.

Curiosity scientists tend to be amused when people see rodents, lizards and other recognizable shapes in the rocks photographed by the rover, Crisp said.

But such claims — the result of a psychological phenomenon called pareidolia, which refers to the human brain's tendency to spot familiar things in random images — are not necessarily a bad thing, she added.

"It's fun in a way, too, in that it will attract a lot of the public to look at the images and learn a little bit about Mars by pulling them in this way," Crisp said.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ]]>

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Before You Go

Curiosity: Mars Science Laboratory's Rover
Curiosity at Work on Mars (01 of17)
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This artist's concept depicts the rover Curiosity, of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, as it uses its Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to investigate the composition of a rock surface. ChemCam fires laser pulses at a target and views the resulting spark with a telescope and spectrometers to identify chemical elements. The laser is actually in an invisible infrared wavelength, but is shown here as visible red light for purposes of illustration. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Daybreak At Gale Crater(02 of17)
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This computer-generated view depicts part of Mars at the boundary between darkness and daylight, with an area including Gale Crater beginning to catch morning light. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Curiosity Launch Vehicle(03 of17)
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The Atlas V 541 vehicle was selected for the Mars Science Laboratory mission because it has the right liftoff capability for the heavy weight requirements of the rover and its spacecraft. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Mars Science Laboratory Spacecraft During Cruise(04 of17)
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This is an artist's concept of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft during its cruise phase between launch and final approach to Mars. The spacecraft includes a disc-shaped cruise stage (on the left) attached to the aeroshell. The spacecraft's rover (Curiosity) and descent stage are tucked inside the aeroshell. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Curiosity Approaching Mars(05 of17)
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The Curiosity rover is safely tucked inside the spacecraft's aeroshell. The mission's approach phase begins 45 minutes before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere. It lasts until the spacecraft enters the atmosphere. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Curiosity Inside Aeroshell(06 of17)
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The Curiosity rover and the spacecraft's descent stage are safely tucked inside the aeroshell at this point. The aeroshell includes a heat shield (on the right, facing in the direction of travel through the atmosphere) and backshell. The diameter of the aeroshell is 14.8 feet (4.5 meters), the largest ever used for a mission to Mars. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Mars Science Laboratory Guided Entry At Mars(07 of17)
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The mission's entry, descent, and landing (EDL) phase begins when the spacecraft reaches the top of Martian atmosphere, about 81 miles (131 kilometers) above the surface of the Gale crater landing area, and ends with the rover safe and sound on the surface of Mars. During the approximately seven minutes of EDL, the spacecraft decelerates from a velocity of about 13,200 miles per hour (5,900 meters per second) at the top of the atmosphere, to stationary on the surface. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Deceleration of Mars Science Laboratory in Martian Atmosphere(08 of17)
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This artist's concept depicts the interaction of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft with the upper atmosphere of Mars during the entry, descent and landing of the Curiosity rover onto the Martian surface. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Mars Science Laboratory Parachute(09 of17)
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This is an artist's concept of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover parachute system. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Curiosity While On Parachute(10 of17)
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This is an artist's concept of NASA's Curiosity rover tucked inside the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's backshell while the spacecraft is descending on a parachute toward Mars. The parachute is attached to the top of the backshell. In the scene depicted here, the spacecraft's heat shield has already been jettisoned. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Curiosity And Descent Stage (11 of17)
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This is an artist's concept of the rover and descent stage for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft during the final minute before the rover, Curiosity, touches down on the surface of Mars. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Curiosity's Sky Crane Maneuver(12 of17)
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The entry, descent, and landing (EDL) phase of the Mars Science Laboratory mission begins when the spacecraft reaches the Martian atmosphere, about 81 miles (131 kilometers) above the surface of the Gale crater landing area, and ends with the rover Curiosity safe and sound on the surface of Mars. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Curiosity Touching Down(13 of17)
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This artist's concept depicts the moment that NASA's Curiosity rover touches down onto the Martian surface. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
A Moment After Curiosity's Touchdown(14 of17)
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This artist's concept depicts the moment immediately after NASA's Curiosity rover touches down onto the Martian surface. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Curiosity Mars Rover(15 of17)
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This artist concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Curiosity's Close-Up(16 of17)
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In this picture, the mast, or rover's "head," rises to about 2.1 meters (6.9 feet) above ground level, about as tall as a basketball player. This mast supports two remote-sensing instruments: the Mast Camera, or "eyes," for stereo color viewing of surrounding terrain and material collected by the arm; and, the ChemCam instrument, which is a laser that vaporizes material from rocks up to about 9 meters (30 feet) away and determines what elements the rocks are made of. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Mars Rover Curiosity(17 of17)
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This artist concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life. (credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
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