[PeterBB]

This picture will be a core part of the conspiracy theories in five years.

[frisco]

The crazy part being the third-person perspective. From the perspective (stitching?), it looks like the camera isn't attached to the rover.

[tjohns]

I'd really love to see how they pulled this off. I can't think of any way to do it without using a second camera at some point.

[tb]

See elsewhere in the thread [1] where I discussed this.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4738558

[DanBC]

"SUPPOSED TO BE DRY MARTIAN DUST? HOW COME IT STICKS TO DRY WHEELS THEN?" etc etc.

[waterlesscloud]

Why does the dry martian dust stick to the dry wheels? An electrostatic effect?

[waterlesscloud]

Replying to myself. I asked Emily Lakdawalla on Twitter. She's a journalist for The Planetary Society website, has great info on all the rover stuff.

Rodney Ramsey: @elakdawalla Maybe you can answer a curious Q for me... Why does Mars dust stick to Curiosity's wheels?

Emily Lakdawalla: @RodneyRamsey Electrostatic! The dust is extremely fine, Mars super dry.

[madmaze]

sadly that is most likely the truth. I already saw some convo about people claiming some of the images were fake or doctored. Perhaps these people dont quite understand how mosaics work

[mhitza]

You can actually see footsteps on the left.

[biftek]

I hope you're joking...

[Retric]

Yea, I wonder if they still have the 55 pictures they stitched this together from.