=========== This photograph 2P297618222EFFB1DQP2294L7M5 is version 5 of a photograph produced for M - MIPL (OPGS) at JPL on Sun, 7 Jun 2009 03:42 (Sol 1928). It was taken with the PANCAM, through the Left camera, using a 432nm (32nm Short-pass) (violet) filter on the Mars Rover Spirit.
It is a full frame EDR picture which is raw, is NOT liniarised, and is NOT thumbnail sized
The picture was taken at site number B1 on drive number DQ, and the command sequence number P2294 to take the picture was instructed by PMA & Remote Sensing instr. (Pancam, Navcam, Hazcam, MI, Mini-TES) and belongs to the group 2000 through 2899 - Pancam sequences =================
The thing to do is to use the use the Mars Rover Web Research Program and look for other shots from the same site. In this case it is B1. There are at least 12 Hazcam photos... Then put in site B1 but put in an end date (and time if you like) which will get the previous 12 for that site. If you just want the pancam, then click that camera. Dont forget to select Spirit as the rover. Keep on putting in the date for the bottom entry as the 'end date' for the next search and it will keep giving you the previous 12 items.
I could not find another view of it on the same day but the interesting thing is that the views around it when it is blocked by the solar panel confirm that the ground has not been disturbed.
I did find another area of anomalies in an image taken on the same day.
Image ref : 2P297618222EFFB1DQP2294L7M5
Now I am not sure what kind of geological/erosive forces could create these shapes...
Poor ol' rovers, been there for so long now that they've started to fall apart as they go about..either that or the bloody martians are tired of seeing them roaming in there backyards
Seriously though, very good find! Me says artificial origin..
Nice find FrozenShade, that really does look like a manufactured artifact. Is there any chance its from the Rover although I cannot imagine how it got there with the soil undisturbed around it....
does not look like a stone. more like a kind of corroded metal object. these regular depressions (grooves), visible on the surface, suggest an artificial origin of this object.