An idea of scale would be nice. If the photo provides any I missed it.

I'd expect more disturbance if it was meteor related, if I'm honest. Part of me suspects a NASA joke. Interesting to ser what develops though

there is a suggestion that one of the rover wheels flipped a rock over.

Orath - the wheel are specifically designed to *not* pick up rocks.

Likely explanation is low gravity/high winds - the rock blew there. Looking at surrounding ground in before & after pictures, it is clear that the textures are different - most likely from the debris that has been blown around. Not much of a mystery at all, really.

@ krellin

Funnily enough I was thinking the exact opposite. Aside from the white rock the two photos are remarkably similar. One us slightly distorted from the other because of some quirk of the camera or angle of shot, and the colour is slightly off (weather conditions or time of day being a likely cause), but aside from the big white thing they would make a damned tricky spot the difference puzzle.

One would expect wind strong enough to move a rock of that size to have moved a lot of other stuff, unless it is a very lightweight rock... Some sort of pumice like thing, perhaps...

God our scientists are stupid sometimes. It's not white, it's silver reflecting the sunlight and the landscape and shadow. It's a piece of metal that came off the damn rover on the first go round.

Scientists are stupid? Gotta love the jumping to conclusions with zero evidence to support the hypothesis whatsoever. I'm really not sure you are in a position to be using that word.

Scale is that the rock is the size of a doughnut. Nothing to get excited over if you ask me. There are a number of mundane ways a rock that size could move, especially with the rover so nearby.

@Ogion - It's hyperbole.

@Thucy - That scale helps. Less likely to be metallic rover debris reflecting sunlight and Martian landscape as that would be a pretty good size chunk to lose off a rover.

It being flipped upside down seems to make the most sense, especially when considering the colours and scale. If you look closely and the before and after photos, you'll see that the other rocks are in almost exactly the same places. Perhaps after the first photo was taken, the rover kept on moving and for whatever reason flipped over a piece of rock that landed there. The rock is white, coated with red rust where it would have been facing upwards. The article says that really it's a nice little discovery because it gives the rover an opportunity to examine the underside of martian rock.

Other explanation: ALIENS!!!

The Martians are playing games with us. They are hiding from our probes until the rovers finally die and stop transmitting. Then they are going to use them to make anal probes for when they visit our planet.

The rover doesn't have a rock flipper? So chance is the only way to get a look at the bottom side of a rock???

Note that the before picture shows some of the rover which helps with understanding the scale, assuming you know the size of the rover, which I do not.

Dude the answer is easy. God put the white rock there as a test.

I think Dragnar's response is more reasonable that a god putting the rock there.

@Alderian:

"The rover doesn't have a rock flipper? So chance is the only way to get a look at the bottom side of a rock???"

Bro you just put three (3) QUESTION MARKS OF DISBELIEF against a *plan that worked*. IT WORKED. They put zero (0) rock flippers on the rover, gave chance a chance, and it paid off. There it is, the bottom of a rock. Plan worked.

Okay, you got me there.

Does it have a pancake flipper?

This rover doesn't have a rock flipper... There are three, and this is one of the smaller two.