Skip to Content
Uncategorized

The Curious Case of the Martian Rabbit

One of the side effects of a mission like NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, where much of the raw mission data is made available to the public shortly after being transmitted to Earth, is the number of, well, unusual interpretations of…
March 9, 2004

One of the side effects of a mission like NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, where much of the raw mission data is made available to the public shortly after being transmitted to Earth, is the number of, well, unusual interpretations of the images made by people. According to this Knight Ridder article, people have claimed to find all sorts of artifacts in the images returned by Spirit and Opportunity: letters of the alphabet, dinosaur fossils, and stone tools. One of the most popular odd sightings is what appears to be the head of a rabbit, with ears that even appear to wriggle. JPL went so far as to publish an article to put to rest the bunny tale: the object, it turns out, is a small, lightweight piece of debris from the Opportunity lander, most likely insulation or material from the lander’s airbags. No doubt, though, there are some people who remain unconvinced, and are scouring the image archives looking for something else

Keep Reading

Most Popular

This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI

The tool, called Nightshade, messes up training data in ways that could cause serious damage to image-generating AI models. 

Rogue superintelligence and merging with machines: Inside the mind of OpenAI’s chief scientist

An exclusive conversation with Ilya Sutskever on his fears for the future of AI and why they’ve made him change the focus of his life’s work.

The Biggest Questions: What is death?

New neuroscience is challenging our understanding of the dying process—bringing opportunities for the living.

Data analytics reveal real business value

Sophisticated analytics tools mine insights from data, optimizing operational processes across the enterprise.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.