On September 9, 2014, Opportunity’s Pancam made several close-up views of rocks lying near the rover.

The rocks were probably thrown out by the Ullysses Crater impact.

Especially one rock took our attention. It looks like the rock contains a part of the head of an animal that turned to stone.

1. Original image

Image 2 and 3: Enlarged 

If you look carefully, right ear and eyes are clearly visible

Of course it may be pareidolia and it is just an oddly shaped rock, what you think?
Original Opportunity image: Sol 3778
Credit: Original color image is created by Holger Isenberg using filtered Pancam frames.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded the component images for a self-portrait about three weeks before completing a decade of work on Mars. The rover's panoramic camera (Pancam) took the images during the interval Jan. 3, 2014, to Jan. 6, 2014 (Image left below)

A key threat to the survival of the Opportunity would be dust sticking to the rover’s solar panels and as you see (image left below) the Opportunity has collected its fair share of dust. So it means the end of the Opportunity?

Don’t worry, according to NASA, this selfie of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows effects of strong wind events that had cleaned much of the accumulated dust off the rover's solar panels, (Image right below - March 2014) resulting, according to Space, in a power boost of 70 percent when compared with power levels at the start of this year.

Image left: Opportunity January 2014 - Image right: opportunity March 2014
The image below of the Opportunity (March 2014) i…

An odd-looking bit of rock mysteriously appeared in front of Opportunity rover in the beginning of January as the rover, waiting out the Martian winter, has not moved since the end of November, according to NASA.


The rock suddenly appeared on photographs taken by Opportunity Mars rover on Sol (Martian day) 3540 or January 8 Earth time, according to NASA’s website.

The rock that appears to be missing in a earlier Opportunity panoramic camera SOL 3536 Photo appears in a later SOL Photo 3540.

The discovery sparked debate among bloggers with various suggestions of the rock’s origin. Among some of the suggestions was the theory that it’s a meteorite, and it literally fell from the sky and landed next to the rover. More believable theories said the rock was something kicked up by Opportunity on its Sol 3540 turn.

But is it a rock? Here is an extreme close up of a part of the rock -- Living Fossil?


Link to Sol 3540 Link to Sol 3536 source / color images & close up image of whole rock