For the past few weeks, the world has been captivated by a jelly doughnut-shaped rock that seemingly appeared from nowhere to rest near the Mars rover Opportunity. While NASA has tried to explain the curious incident, many people are not satisfied and veteran Star Trek actor William Shatner has weighed in on the matter.
The rock in question was first seen back in Jan. 8 when NASA scientists reviewed the latest images sent back by the rover. The rock seemingly appeared out of nowhere to rest at a spot that was empty just 13 days before. Scientists have since referred to the little red and white rock as the "pinnacle island."
Shatner is a veteran actor who became a household name as captain of the crew of the iconic starship Enterprise in the hit show Star Trek. The actor first called out NASA regarding the Mars rock in a Twitter post last month. Shatner's tweet was also read out loud during a NASA press conference held to discuss the recent discoveries made by the Opportunity rover.
During the NASA conference held last Jan. 23, the "pinnacle island" was one of the topics discussed and NASA spokesman Guy Webster read out a number of questions, one of which was Shatner's.
"We've got another question from Twitter, this one from William Shatner," said Webster. "He'd like to know if you've ruled out the Martian rock throwers in the case of the jelly doughnut."
Steve Squyres answered the question and while the answer pointed to more mundane causes, Squyres did voice out some of the more likely theories. Squyres hails from the Cornell University in New York and is also the lead scientist for the Mars Opportunity rover.
"I think Martian rock throwers are unlikely, though we'll keep our eyes open for those," said Squyres. "We did actually have another scenario which we're still thinking about. It's the 'smoking hole in the ground hypothesis' as I've called it. We cannot yet rule out the possibility with certainty that there wasn't a freshly formed impact crater nearby, and that this is a piece of stuff that was thrown out by a small impact."
