THAT MYSTERIOUS LIGHT ON MARS: IT JUST GETS BETTER AND BETTER

April 12, 2014 / Joseph P. Farrell /

By now, most of you have probably heard of that mysterious light on Mars that was photographed by NASA's Curiosity rover, but in case you haven't check out these articles shared with us by Mr. V.T., Ms. P.H., Mr. G.B. and many other regular readers here(and a big thank you to them!):

NASA offers 3 explanations for strange bright light seen in photo from Mars

NASA Curiosity rover captures mysterious bright light on Mars

And from our good friends at Phys.org, this gem:

'Bright light' on Mars is just an image artifact

My initial reaction, when I saw this photo, was "This is real, it's not an artifact, And it's anomalous." I tried to explain it, or rather, explain it away, and to my surprise, subsequent articles, the first and third which I linked above for example, rehearsed some of the very same explanations I ran through inside my own mind. There are three "explanations" according to the first article:

"According to NASA, a bright spot appears in single images taken by the stereo camera's "right eye" camera, but the spot doesn't show up in images taken less than a second later by the left-eye camera.

I"n the two right-eye images, the spot is in different locations of the image frame, and, in both cases, at the ground surface level in front of a crater rim on the horizon, Justin Maki, a NASA imaging scientist said April 8 by email through a spokesman.

"'One possibility is that the light is the glint from a rock surface reflecting the sun,' Maki said in the statement. 'When these images were taken each day, the sun was in the same direction as the bright spot, west-northwest from the rover, and relatively low in the sky.'

"Another possibility is that the bright spots are sunlight reaching the camera's image sensor through a vent hole in the camera housing, which has happened before with Curiosity and other Mars rovers, the agency said."

Now compare this with our good friends at Phys.org's statement here:

"Thanks to everyone who has emailed, Tweeted and texted me about the "artificial bright light" seen on Mars. And I'm so sorry to disappoint all the folks who were hoping for aliens, but what you see above is just an image artifact due to a cosmic ray hitting the right-side navigation camera on the Curiosity rover.

"If you do a little research, you can see that the light is not in the left-Navcam image that was taken at the exact same moment (see that image below). Imaging experts agree this is a cosmic ray hit, and the fact that it's in one 'eye' but not the other means it's an imaging artifact and not something in the terrain on Mars shooting out a beam of light."

This is a bit disconcerting, to say the least, for it is almost as if our good friends at Phys.org are saying that our good friends at Never A Straight Answer cannot tell the difference between glinty rocks and cosmic rays. And you'll have noticed a bit of obfuscation between the two articles: Never A Straight Answer is saying that the left hand image, which Phys.Org is citing as "confirmation" of its cosmic ray hypothesis, was taken at a different time than the right hand image with the light, which Phys.Org is saying was taken at the same time. So which is it guys? (and, having failed to get your story straight the first time, would anyone believe any additional statements or explanations at this juncture?)

Then there's the "glinty rock" explanation, which I find dubious at best. For one thing, the light extends above the background line of the distant hill, which would mean a rock extending in the same fashion with its reflective surface. But no such rock appears in the second photo without the light, at least, not as far as my squinting eyes can tell. Other than this, I have no problem with the glinty rock hypothesis, except that usually glinty rocks are found lying around with other glinty rocks, and at that distance, one would expect other glinty rocks to be reflecting sunlight, since they'd be at more or less the same angle. Of course, glinty rocks can and do exist all by themselves, and I suspect we've all seen them before. But in that case, we're still thrown back on the first problem, that this particular glinty rock appears to extend above the line of the hill in the distance, and no such rock appears in the second photo.

Now, on a planet where we have our space probes photographing this (and yes, folks, I checked the NASA site and as the article states, found this object on the NASA photo, after a bit of searching):

Just What the Heck is going on with Mars, Anyway?

can we really afford to dismiss the hypothesis that this might be another anomaly? Suddenly there, and just as suddenly not?(q.v. Nasa's explanation that the two pictures were taken at slightly different times). For the moment, folks, I'm not satisfied with the explanations we've been given, and the subtle obfuscation evident in the explanations between two respected sources, so I'm holding all possibilities open, until the explanations do not conflict, and make some sort of sense.

See you on the flip side.

Posted in Cosmic War

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

9 Comments

Eddie on April 14, 2014 at 8:55 am

The “official,” contradictory responses provide an excellent example of the attitude of all such “established science guys.” An exasperated sigh from the talking head. An implied chuckle at how stupid the public is to think there’s anything to even talk about because of course it’s just a cosmic ray, and a pinpoint light leak, and a shiny rock,indeed, it’s all three excuses at once.
Seems like they’ve overdone the ‘splainin’ this time.
duncan mckean on April 12, 2014 at 9:18 pm

extraordinary events require extraordinary proof/evidence ? sounds like the status quo scientific community is following the lead of every other perpetuated standardized league of mediocrity .the animal farm league.whos skeptical of the skeptic? ever consider the realm of possibility??
DownunderET on April 12, 2014 at 2:57 pm

Well just like the US government, NASA has for years been the laughing stock of the space community. I feel sorry for the people who work there as some of them are obviously dedicated to their work. BUT, when you work for a company that you know continually lies about what they do, then even loyalty has it’s limits.

Remember what Stephen Bassett said “It’s not about the lights in the sky, it’s about the lies on the ground. NUFF SAID.
marcos toledo on April 12, 2014 at 11:18 am

This just the latest of continuing Mars boggy follies. Beginning in 1976 one the instruments looking for signs of life didn’t work guess which one. The pyramids of Mars, the face in Cydonia. Then there is the Mars rock found in Antarctica now this light on Mars. A beacon from the secret USSF colony or a extra solar mining expedition a la Robinson Crouse On Mars. When will we get from Never A Straight Answer when HELL freezes over.
- jedi on April 12, 2014 at 12:22 pm
  
  And also the holly wood crowd latest offering last mission to mars where the crew picks up a virus and turn into zombies…
  
  Same strange theme from 2001, with Heywood Floyd or whatever his name was which was a anagram for defy Hollywood, with Dave figuring out hal was malfunctioning. Hal is IBM or aluminum in our brains….
Robert Barricklow on April 12, 2014 at 9:56 am

Reminds me of a video I once saw where at a news conference
an official was saying the governments report on the ufo was absolutely false. After a number of great arguments against the government’s official explaining of the ufo video in question the official got mad enough at those questioning the video to shout/
Are you going to believe your own *@#!*ing Eyes,
or the Government’s version?!!!!
bradboss12 on April 12, 2014 at 8:39 am

Hi there! You know, I went to the CNN page and saw it. That’s not all. Sorry if this is a duplicate post and someone else spotted it first, but on photo 37, there is a “rock”. I did a quick line trace on Photoshop, and it is a little pyramid! Right there on the screen! here is the site: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/08/us/mars-rover-image/index.html?eref=edition, go to #37. The image is #120919095559-mars-rock-jake-matijevic-horizontal-gallery.jpg Must be swamp gas in my eyes. : )
jedi on April 12, 2014 at 8:39 am

Another option is the rover is in a studio here on earth.
…and the money printers want us too watch there stage show and be dazzled at how well they run this world.
Remember the coke can viewed on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 landing.

Speaking of NASA they have a flying saucer for a Mars mission….for some reason the reporters all had to don special contamination suits during the unveiling.

And back here on planet strange, nations are scrambling too detach them self from the nut bars. Like sentencing 500 people to death over in Egypt in one mass swoop.
DanaThomas on April 12, 2014 at 5:43 am

It looks like a case of that good old-time “swamp gas”, but there are (apparently) no swamps on Mars…