NASA Doughnut Rock Mystery Resolved
(Video Credit: YouTube/WhatsUpInTheSky37)
The NASA doughnut rock mystery has certainly reached a level of controversy that even led to court cases due to its need to being properly identified. But now, it seems the U.S. Space Agency has already got things resolved.
It can be recalled that the mysterious tiny object has been seen and captured by the NASA Opportunity Rover on Dec 26, 2013 and popped up again on Jan 8, 2014. The 12-day difference is indeed a mystery already of its own, but what it could really be is the main question.
The rock that comes with a red centre and called as Pinnacle Island is a tiny part of a bigger rock that was driven by the wheel of the rover in January. According to the deputy principal investigator of the Opportunity Rover, they drove over the inspected rock and where it actually came from. But what cannot be denied is the oddity of the doughnut-looking rock.
Upon the examination of the rock, they found out that it has numerous elements of sulphur and manganese which suggests it has ingredients which are soluble in water.
Since the emergence of the doughtnut rock, many other speculations about it came up including one from someone named as Rhawn Joseph who even filed court papers to push NASA to take a deeper research on it.
"The refusal to release high resolution photos is inexplicable, recklessly negligent and bizarre," Mr Joseph added who claims to be a neuroscientist and astrobiologist.
The Opportunity Rover is one of the exploration rovers that NASA used in exploring the Red Planet. Both have been able to go way past their original missions of 90 days and have considerably made amazing discoveries during their chance to visit Mars. However, the other rover called Spirit has never communicated back to Earth since 2010.
Meanwhile, NASA has sent on Feb 13 the latest pictures of their moon probe with the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer spacecraft. It was sent to Earth's ground controllers and showed a lunar landscape pockmarked along with some stars, Fox News stated.
The LADEE's project manager said that with the help of their spacecraft's star tracker camera, they were able to show Earth some "exciting glimpses of the lunar terrain."