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NASA / JPL-Caltech / Ken Kremer / Marco Di Lorenzo
A photographic mosaic shows the Curiosity rover's surroundings at a Martian location known as Yellowknife Bay. This view has been assembled from black-and-white images captured by the rover's navigation camera on Sol 132 (Dec. 19). Gaps in imagery of the Martian sky have been filled in, and the whole scene has been colorized. Click here or on the image to see the complete 360-degree panorama.
The cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover have been clicking away over the holidays — gathering enough pictures for a 360-degree panorama of its rocky surroundings at Yellowknife Bay, plus a close-up view showing a "Martian flower" seemingly sprouting from the surface.
The panorama was assembled from pictures snapped by the rover's navigation camera system on the 132nd Martian day of Curiosity's mission on the Red Planet, also known as Sol 132 or Dec. 19.
In this case, the folks doing the assembling are Ken Kremer, a New Jersey-based journalist, research chemist and photographer; and Marco Di Lorenzo, a physicist who's a high-school educator and photographer in Italy. They stitched together the black-and-white images, filled in the gaps in the Martian sky and colorized the scene to reflect what an observer on Mars might see.
We've featured the efforts of Kremer and Di Lorenzo several times before: They're part of an active online community that makes use of the raw images provided by Curiosity and other Mars probes, and then shares them via websites such as UnmannedSpaceflight.com. Even now, the folks at UnmannedSpaceflight are posting plenty of amazing pictures from Yellowknife Bay, including a must-see, zoomable GigaPan version.
Another picture from Sol 132 has stirred up some buzz at the Above Top Secret discussion forum. The picture focuses in on a bright, crumpled object that's sitting on a Martian outcrop, as seen by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI. The translucent shape is reminiscent of a flower's pistils, which led one of the forum's members to call it a "Martian flower."
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
An anomalous bit of bright material can be seen left of center in this view captured by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager on Sol 132 of the mission (Dec. 19).
Update for 8:30 p.m. ET: I initially suspected that the flower was a tiny shred of plastic from the rover itself. Such a shred popped up in October. At that time, experts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory surmised that the plastic may have been a bit of wrapping that was knocked loose from the Mars Science Laboratory's descent stage during the spacecraft's August landing. The plastic was thought to have fallen on top of the rover, and then dropped to the ground weeks later.
That's what led me to go with the plastic-scrap hypothesis. However, some of the folks commenting on the pictures noted that the object seemed to be embedded in the rock — which would argue against my hypothesis. So I put in an inquiry with Guy Webster, who serves as JPL's main spokesman for NASA's Mars missions.
A couple of hours later, Webster emailed me the verdict: "That appears to be part of the rock, not debris from the spacecraft."
Mystery solved? It's certainly an intriguing bit of mineral that stands out prominently in the MAHLI picture. If I find out anything more, I'll be sure to pass it along. And if it turns out that flowers are really sprouting up on Mars, you'll know it's time to cue up the "X-Files" theme. Either way, the truth is out there.
The Curiosity rover has released more images of Mars, including a self-portrait created with more than 50 images. NBC's Kate Snow has more.
More pictures from Kremer and Di Lorenzo:
- Scenes from Mars' 'Promised Land'
- Rover checks out its belly on Mars
- Curiosity adds color to Martian peak
- Mars rover points to its destination
- Still more from KenKremer.com
More about Martian anomalies:
- Opportunity's rover rotini
- Spirit's 'Mermaid on Mars'
- Opportunity's bunny ears
- Phoenix's Martian spring
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Trace the Curiosity rover's journey to Mars and see the pictures that the six-wheeled robot has sent back from the Red Planet.
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Still very exciting stuff! The author's right too! UnmannedSpaceflight.com is a great site and I love viewing pics there. I've been paying attention to the curiosity rover since it landed and it's been quite interesting. It'll be nice to tell stories about it down the road.
I'm betting the first piece of vegetation found on another planet will be a weed and not the kind you smoke.
It looks like a crumpled up Walmart receipt... seriously though, it's pretty cool and different, that's for sure! Who knows what else we'll find out there? Hopefully some real cool stuff before the rovers break down.
Yeah....we just spent another $25 million so we can look at another picture of sand, rock....and oh yeah, more sand!!! AMAZING! I'm willing to make a bet on the next picture (that will cost millions more!) that we get from this waste of tax dollars.....is more f*cking sand, rocks, and more SAND!!! How about taking care of the needy and paying off our national debt? arghhhhhhhh
The debt is $4 trillion. Do you now how much a difference $25 million makes in that?
NONE. ZIP. NADA. ZILCH.
And that $25 million that is spent. Where do you think it is actually spent? And on what? HERE ON EARTH. PROVIDING JOBS TO AMERICANS.
It's not a zero-sum game.
It looks like perlite.
NASA is one of the very few government programs which provides a solid return on investment. Besides, scientific research and development often has numerous applications in the civlian market. There are plenty of other worthless programs out there with bloated budgets which we can cut.
There are a lot of experts in the space travel arena that say if NASA was gone tomorrow we'd still be doing most of this stuff...because most of it, as you said, turns a profit. I'd also mention that some of those profitable endeavors are unfairly arrived at....because NASA can legally break every single patent law without paying for it. They "steal" more inventions to innovate than anyone else. However, the unfairness isn't that they do that, it's that no one else can do it. They are one of the proofs that "intellectual property" via patents and copyrights are anti-free market and anti-progress, not the other way around. Trademarks are fine...but all the rest is slowing down progress, competition, and hurting consumers so a few of the state's cronies can make extra profits they are afraid to compete for.
It's a pork rind!
Piece of rock, like everything else on that planet.
Not a piece of rock Gunner. At first I though it was a ladies ear ring lost in the sand but looking closely I see more pieces of the translucent material on the rock.
It might be some kind of naturally growing glass like material, or simply a mineral but the shape is tantalizing.
Seriously, NASA buys items from my work...So, thanks NASA for supporting American jobs!!
I think this is a very interesting discovery because is it so UNLIKE the surrounding rock. I agree, it appears to be embedded in the rock but what would create such an anomaly?
I guess we should ask if the photograph is true color or color enhanced? Maybe the actual difference in appearance is not that great.
It certainly looks like a foreign object embedded in the rock.
You can make all kinds of jokes and snarky comments but you have to admit it is very curious.
You're not even educated enough to debate the merits and benefits of science programs with. If someone has to explain it to you it's already a lost cause.
amphiox - Just to clarify, the National Debt stands at $16.4 Trillion, not $4 Trillion. So that makes your point even clearer. The $25 million is well spent. We're learning more and more about what is "out there". We're also providing high level jobs in the U.S., not China or India.
@Jeff: Perhaps Jamie moonlights as a writer for The Onion:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/mars-rover-beginning-to-hate-mars,2072/
The thing I'm starting to notice more in these pictures, is the increased clarity of the images vs past rovers. Even though they can't image the same target, putting similar photos side by side between Curiosity and Spirit/Opportunity would be interesting.
Looks like Mother of pear
hey, maybe it'll be "good stuff, man". LOL
It looks like a tree???
The so-called "flower" looks a lot like the salt crusts I saw along the Dead Sea in Jordan. Translucent and smoothed. That kind of formation would make sense on a planet that has H2O in its history.
I would like to know why nasa cover some of the pictures with black square? what are they trying to hide or block us from viewing?
I hope you are joking? You do know that they are not "covering" parts of the picture, but making one "big" picture by putting together a lot of little pictures.
Its a CONSPIRACY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL
My theory is NASA is blacking out some jerk martian who is trying to photo-bomb the picture...
A Martian moon? I hear there are two, and they're quite small.
What is going to happen when it find Noah's Ark? That's gonna bust things wide open.
Bill Cosby built the ARK and he never went to Mars
And if the Ark is full of fossilized animals...?
Martian shroom,. Yeah Buddy!
The rover hocked a lugi
Screw the flower, did anybody look at the (panaramic) view of the picture???? Why is half of the mountain in the back ground blackend out!! Looks like its raining on top of the mountain??? There is lot missing from these photos...
It's a conspiracy, Matt! Go tell Mitt Romney!! I'm sure he can start jumping around in his Magic Underwear and come up with some mormon cult answers for you!!!
Too bad it wasn't a pot plant.
Good thing DMorgan buys into everything he's told, and questions absolutely nothing. A true sheeple.
i see a bunch of red spec's/ flakes everywhere. is that red eye (camera) or mineral deposits or such??..
Well, the first thing that finding Noah's Ark on Mars, rather than the mountains of Ararat would do is instantly falsify the bible, and prove that all three of humanity's major monotheistic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are wrong.
I think science did that a long time ago. I mean, a dead guy coming back from being ACTUALLY dead? Sin causing disease, not these things called germs?
I mean I believe in a Creator, but religion is nonsense. It's all myth stories, logically. Rational people gave up on the myths and either became atheists, agnostics, or Deists in the 19th Century.
Matt Honeycutt
The mountain hasn't been "blackened out". These pictures are mosaics made of up hundreds or thousands of smaller images stitched together. Maybe some images didn't work out or where deemed to be unusable or whatever but I don't think anyone was trying to hide anything. If they did see rain on the mountains I think the scientists would be jumping for joy and half of our Astronauts would be packing their bags and leaving for Mars tomorrow. It is also unlikely there is a group of Martians standing at the bottom of the picture either but you'll notice that is blacked out too.
Pro individual, science has done no such thing and though there are germs and bacteria, disease is helped along by the condition of our mind. I know because I had a strong case of dengue once and a minister of Scientology relieved my symptoms just by asking a few questions. So science is woefully behind. There is no money in the truth.
By the way, I'm not a member of that church. I trust Hubbard as far as I can trow him and, since he died, I can't trow him at all.
Jibaro, do you consult palm readers on what you should have for lunch?
*FACEPALM!*
Now you did it! That's Newts secret base and NOW EVERYBODY KNOWS ABOUT IT MORON!!
can it rain without clouds?????
Piece of plastic off rover? Looks like it's embedded to me. More resolution please!
Hmm, it might be worth taking a close look at it. I suppose it's possible this is a bright fleck of mineral that's catching the light just right. But I'm betting it's plastic. Definitely not a flower. ;-) I'll check with JPL on this one.
It doesn't look embedded, there's a shadow. Martian dust is supposed to be very fine and the moment that thing hit the dirt it probably got a static induced coating of the stuff. Much like the astronauts got on the moon.
Mark ,,, there are a lot of obviously embedded rocks that are casting shadows.
We just got there and we're already polluting the place.
I've asked the folks at JPL to take a look at it, and I expect that someone from the MAHLI team will get back to me with their opinion. Once Cigarette-Smoking Man has come up with the cover story. ;-)
YES! The truth is out there.... :D
TY Alan... It looks like a "refraction" from minerals on my screen... could be trash though... not organic... (I think)..... Zap it with the laser... It'll wad up into nothing if its "plastic" or give of the characteristic of the the surrounding mineral. ...
Maybe alien "lichen"... that would be "One for the history books"..
It seems to be hanging out over the edge of that little lip of the rock. It should have fallen over if it weren't embedded.
OK, I've updated the item to back away from the plastic-scrap hypothesis. Folks who are smarter than me say that the object is part of the rock.
Thank you, Alan. Do appreciate the follow up.
And just out of curiosity, what is the temperature right now where the lander is located? Minus 20 C?
Nevermind. Just looked it up at http://cab.inta-csic.es/rems/marsweather.html.
-1C to -65C.
I'm suddenly feeling a bit toasty in my slippers.
I see you've already found the right page...
The report I'm looking at right now shows "Dec. 1" (which is not good) but also lists "Sol 144" (which would actually be Jan. 1 ... which is pretty good). It shows a high of -1 degree C, and a low of -65 degrees C. That's equivalent to 30 degrees F to -85 degrees F. Let's keep tabs on this page and see if it changes day to day:
http://cab.inta-csic.es/rems/marsweather.html
Thanks, Alan!
Packing Peanut.... Get back to work!
It is not out of the scope of reality that the "flower' might be a nodule of some sort of mineral exposed due to processes of erosion. Quartz weathering out of a mafic intrusion would look something like this here on earth. Seems we have little more than a Martian "Intruder". 8-)
Maybe its a Diamond!!
It must be that the rover sneezed!
Maybe it's brought about by the extreme radiation that Mars receives. Periodic table may need to be updated. :-)
Alan, why, when there is an object such as this, that appears to be jutting out of the rock, do they not get multiple angles of the object?
Seeing 3 or 4 pics from different angles would provide a bit more info, no?
Tony... I wish they would to..that would be forward thinking of NASA... nahh.. wouldn't happen in a million years... Alan has to dig the "dirt" for us..
It's possible that there are a lot of mineral formations like this at very small scales in the rock, and the folks who are in charge of the science program may feel that it's not worth checking out every one. It's also possible that a paper about the mineral composition of Martian rock, including things like this "flower," will turn up at some point in a research paper.
Ah, good ol' X-Files. Good times.
The 360 degree photo looks to be a dried up riverbed.
WOW!!! The zoomable GigaPan puts you there! Well, almost.
It's not 'almost certainly' a piece of the rover any more than it is 'almost certainly' a "flower" and not a mineral or other inclusion (quartz or other). This inclusion is covered with a homogenous looking dust, same as everything else on that rock, kind of ruling out a recent drop in of rover debris. I worry that bias runs NASA though, that if they think something can't be what it might seem to be, they won't even look at it. I've seen all kinds of bright things only a few yards away, very interesting out of the ordinary rocks or other, that deserved a second look...but you never see another picture. If there *is* any any fossil there, they'll drive right by it, saying "Nah, can't be that."
Please read the second-to-last paragraph of the article.
Please.. for me??
Has anyone noticed that the priority seems to be on plain rocks and the rover itself? It would seem anything that looks interesting is ignored.
This item looks NOTHING like the bit of plastic previously seen. It does look like several other objects that ARE embedded in the rock.
Its shape somewhat resembles ONE other embedded object, just to the upper left of it. The color looks nothing like any other embedded object, and appears almost translucent.
The new "composit" picture concept is great idea! People were catching on to the deliberatly blurred out or erased "classified object" removal thing in so many NASA photographs taken on Mars and the Moon, so now whatever you desperatly don't want the public to see can be conveniently and boldly blocked out in a big black box that "just wasn't an available area" in the "assembled" picture. And for the record, don't "assemble" pictures for the public. Just snap away, release them, and let the chips fall where they may when the cat gets out of the bag. And time to mix up a better glue, guys. If that much otherwise inappropriate material to be found on Mars keeps "falling off the rover", the poor thing will be naked!
NASA aren't the ones doing the assembling. They're just snapping away and releasing raw photos, the way you ask. The assemblymen are random bloggers. Stop seeing conspiracies where there aren't any.
I hate to tell you, but all of these digitized pictures are "assembled" from pixels beamed across millions of miles of interplanetary space. It's not like they're dropping off film!
In this case, there are separate images that have to be put together to produce the mosaic. Ken and Marco pieced together those images ... but some areas of the 360-degree picture were not imaged, and that explains the black patch you see in the picture.
A piece of plastic that fell off...How stupid do they think people are?? NASA lets you see what they want you to see, nothing more.
That's a great conspiracy theory ... but if they were so hell-bent on keeping you from the goods ... wouldn't they have just buried the photo in the first place? As opposed to, you know, releasing it to the public?
Chad - STOP USING LOGIC! You are ruining a perfectly irrational conspiracy!
Yes, yes ... I really need to keep in mind what goes on in here.
Sage is a bit wrong. It's not just plastic, but Martian-made plastic!! That's what they are not telling us.
No, this is the place where NASA faked the moon landing!
Sure Michael,, I see how you are. You back Sage up, but when I try to float a perfectly ridiculous rescheduling of the Mayan apocalypse to 2014, you shoot my theory all to hell with verifiable facts. :)
Facts are irritating little things.... They itch, and get under the skin.
Sage...
First of all, please change your name. Sage - you are not.
Next, you'll be telling us that they're planting materials from Area 51 all over Mars. You need to chill out.
Conspiracy theoreticians, for or against, what makes you think that the pictures were not altered before they were released? For beginners the picture seem out of focus, if that's the quality of the cameras sent to Mars then we should save some money ans squash the project.
For another, it would seem far fetched to believe that the thing is a piece of plastic that fell of the Rover, I mean, how much plastic did the rover use to litter the landscape and how far did it spread it? Did we go to Mars to turn it into a garbage dump?
DMorgan, I think he meant the herb sage. Perhaps he should change to Oregano?
Alan,,, definitely not a flower, but it looks stuck there and appears to have dust on it. Also , wouldn't the wind blow it around if it was plastic?
Atmosphere is too thin for anything much bigger than dust to blow around in
How wrong can you get? The Viking landers observed wind speeds of over 60 mph in the 1970's. Plastic would be blown around easily.
Mars has an atmosphere 1/135 of Earth's. Even at the strongest gusts possible, it would only be moving about the amount of gas as 0.44 mph on Earth. Hardly enough to move anything except for super fine dust?
Actually, dust devils are regularly produced there and have been photographed, and the Martian winds are strong enough to create dunes.
Yes, but you can see in the picture just how fine that dust is compared to the object. The maximum weight of what the winds can pick up appears to be pretty small?
It's all about the viscosity of the moving material. For example, a 12 MPH wind on Earth is barely felt on your cheek, yet it's almost impossible to stand in a 1 ft deep river flowing at 12 MPH because water is so much thicker than air. Mars' atmosphere is less than 1% as thick as Earth's, so a 60 MPH wind would exert almost no force.
ToddC-1160496: Thank you for a great explanation.
So, the flow of material on Titan or Venus must prove extremely powerful, yes?
Yes - I would expect so - depending on the wind speeds of course. Wind speeds at some places in the atmosphere of Venus are 200+ MPH, but luckily for the Venusian, down at the surface the wind speeds are 5-10 MPH only (plus of course the 800+ degree F temperatures!). However, the density is also 67 kg per cubic meter on Venus as compared to just 1.2 kg per cubic meter on Earth - so yes, a thicker, heavier atmosphere, at any given wind speed, would exert more force. With a thinner (or almost non-existent in the case of Mars) atmosphere at any given wind speed, would exert less force.
Interestingly enough - while the surface conditions on Venus are a literal Hell - about 40-50 miles up, the winds, temperatures, pressures and even Oxygen/Nitrogen content are all just about identical to a nice day on Earth. Quite literally - you could fly around in a Cessna in shirt sleeves and likely do just fine there. :)
Floating Venutian cities?
Could be, you never know. Of all the places we know about in the Solar System, this is the first (only) habitable environment. Based on what I know of what they know, this is about a 10 mile wide 'band' in the atmosphere around Venus that is LOTS like Earth's environment, right down to the temperature, pressure ad even the 20% Oxygen & 70% Nitrogen part. It would be interesting to fly a helium balloon around and study the air and/or look for life there.
It looks like heterogenous silica (raw glass). There are other pieces like it in the same rock (though they don't catch the light as well).
What is the scale on the photo? From the photo it looks like a dirty sandstone with a larger clast of a reflective mineral like gypsum or a mica.
Rocks and pieces of plastic. Isn't there anything more interesting to photograph on Mars?
It's the nearest planet that we're able to land on and photograph. that alone makes it interesting and fascinating.
Unless you're a mindless shrew...
good to see some thing from another planet...i've see enough of kim k. and honey bo bo...
What kind of sensationalism crap reporting is this from MSNBC???? It's a damn piece of plastic...not a friggin "flower". Why don't you go back to ragging on the GOP - that at least has some merit.
They called it a 'flower', as in there is a catch. Notice the quotations. I was expecting a strange Mars formation. Only a fool would think it would be an actual plant. Or someone who can't read a title properly.
Simply poor journalism. It might as well be The National Inquirer.
DMcCurry: It's "The National Enquirer". You may want to spell correctly if you're going to criticize someone's writing. Simply poor English.
Actually, the leading hypothesis is now that it's a damn bit of mineral. Shaped like a flower pistil.
Alan it's not your fault so many people never got beyond 4th grade reading comprehension. No worries. The rest of us knew it wasn't a flower before we opened the article.
It's not a flower. It's bird dew.
that is not a piece of plastic or a flower...how gullible do you think we are? It appears to be a part of mother of pearl shell or some other opalescent fragment 'embedded in rock', it could even be opal which occurs natuarally in nature...but please, dont tell us it is a piece of plastic from the rover embedded in this rock.
It's plastic. There was even a similar picture taken back in October. If it was embedded why is it so much smaller at base?
Being smaller at the base is what makes it look imbedded. If not embedded wouldn't it be top heavy, and fall over? It curves out over the side of the rock, and should fall completely off the little ledge it's on, if it doesn't have some sort of root, or more likely mycelium, since there doesn't seem to be any chlorophyl green. They should be able to tell, if it grows at all.
That could be true too. Hmm...
And there's a bear with glowing eyes to the left of the "flower".
There's also a shark at the top of the picture, jumping out of the "water" to bite something.
I wish they would not use "flower" or other such descriptors, unless they actually find plants. It really gives people the wrong impression. Some people will actually think we found plants on Mars. I fight enough mis-information as it is.
If not plastic, could it be a crystallized mineral deposit?
Unless, when you read the line, you noticed the word FLOWER was in quotations, therefore (anyone who made it past 4th grade and knows English) that generally indicates a derivative or colloquial meaning of the word.
when someone tells you they went car shopping several months ago, and ended up buying a "lemon" - are any of you STUPID enough to assume they were driving a yellow piece of citrus around all this time?
jesus h nipple, people. get a clue, will you? and while you're at it, grow up a little...
Most people just see flower, they don't know that 'flower' doesn't actually mean "flower".
This reminds me of the 2003 Toyota Camry I bought new. A couple of years ago a heat shield fell off the engine and I was told by a Toyota Dealer (service department) they don't normally replace part(s) that fall off. My question is the same as I have here, "what else falls off?" I'd also like to mention the tecnichain had to push the car back to the service area, they didn't know how to start it thus parts falling off after the service! I thought it was funny until parts started falling off a few days later.
oops * technician
Quite frankly, I am getting tired of journalism like this. Mis-quoting and making headline articles more than what they are, is plain wrong. I do not read news like the Globe and National Inquirer for a reason. More and more each day this is happening here too and it stinks. There are no flowers on Mars and it doesn't even look like a flower. Even the most simplest forms of life, like the premordial soup of basic amino acids have not been found on Mars.
The title was appropriate. It doesn't say "Curiosity rover studies rocks and a flower on Mars", it says "Curiosity rover studies rocks and a 'flower' on Mars." The quotations meaning a catch of some sort, which readers are very much curious of finding out. There have been many comparisons to life when it comes to Mars formations, like the "blueberries."
It wasn't even the author to dub it as a "flower", the community that found it did.
DMcCurry: I believe this use of English is called a simile, often used to help make a more difficult subject easier to grasp, especially for non-scientific readers. Good science writing, I would say, by the response from the Vine community.
Here's a nice link to help you understand the term: http://www.englishforums.com/content/lessons/what-is-a-simile.htm.
Monkey: Thank you, I know what a smile is and do not believe it was. I am sorry if I do not agree with you or Pith, but this type of journalism, considered as acceptable nowadays, is going overboard quite too often in my own opinion. I look for truth in science, not eye catching phrases or "National Inquirer" style journalism.
Pith: The writer chose to headline the same dub into the headline. It is my belief still, "flower" is used for nothing more, then to sensationalize it and has nothing to do with non-scientific readers.
One final remark. For my comments to be collapsed by the community (quite surely by one of you two who replied to me), shows fear of my honest opinion and and an attempt to squelch me. I should be allowed to offer my own opinion without it being hidden. I did not say anything vulgar, mean or bad, other than express my feelings on this method of journalism being used far too often.
I don't collapse comments unless it is advertising. No one should have their opinions hidden away.
Quite honestly though, I love Alan's titles because not only does it make me impulsive to click, but I am always rewarded. The National Inquirer would only name a title in such a way to make a bad or uninteresting story into something people would look over anyways.
Ohhh...Ahhhh! Plastic from the Mars rover. How exciting! Anyway, I have a feeling that NASA really found something 'interesting' that they are withholding until further notice from the White House. Stay tuned....
Conspiracies aside? If they DID find a live being on that planet it'd never make it to the public. The equivalent of a bird on that planet would be covered up. I'll bet it would get out but they would squash it as a crazy rumor. Enjoy that plastic--it's all we're going to see.
...and what benefit would there be at hiding it? NASA is desperate for money. If anything, they want to find something that would increase the public's interest. :P
The government hides nothing from us anymore, there is no conspiracy here.
Pack it up, let's get to Mercury.
I'm thinking Europa actually.
Not only does this not look like plastic, it also does not look like the "other photo of plastic dropped off the rover". It does however look a lot like a mineral outcropping on the surrounding stone.
On second thought, anhydrite might be more likely on Mars
Its a mushroom. Fungus is one of the hardier life forms. And grows in low light.
Whatever you do, dont bring it on board.