Has anyone looked into this? What’s the straight dope on Martian bunny rabbits?
Is this just tom foolery?
Thanks,
Matt
It’s a joke.
They should never have named Elmer Fudd the director of this mission…
It ain’t rabbits. It’s ducks, of course!
I so wish that were true, but he’s linking all over the place to Richard Hoagland. Sad to say, this site is operated by a first-class loon.
So where’s The Bad Astronomer been lately?
I’m around. It’s been a while…
But I have a series of pages debunking Richard Hoagland, and the bunny is among them: Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions: Richard Hoagland's Nonsense
While we’re at it, the “giant rat on Mars” clip from the Letterman show was a joke, too.
Aww, come on, guys! If there weren’t bunnies on Mars, Elvis would have told us so. Doesn’t that stand to reason??
Wouldn’t they a-splode?
I was shown the bunny-rabbit by ahem sources close to NASA when they first noticed it. Full disclosure: I myself am a source who occassionally works for NASA, so I am also part of the Great Conspiricy to Hide the Truth and you can’t believe anything I say.
Anyway, when they reimaged the area later, it was gone, so they suspect it was something lightweight—a whisp of foam, or someting—that blew away. It, or another peice of debris that’s similar was found in a navcam image under one of the ramps.
Opportunity did not actually drive over the location where the bunny was seen as is claimed on the webpage linked by the OP. According to my sources 
it had already disappeared by the time they were heading for the outcrop, so nobody was paying attention to that spot anyway.
And if they had actually driven over it, you would be able to see it in navcam and hazcam images, which are all availabe here: http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity.html
They did twist and turn along their path, to test out the rover’s ability to maneuver before approaching science targets, but the author of this page seems a bit confused about that. He goes on about “skid marks,” as though there was one spot where the rover slipped—where the maneuvers took place. Actually, the slippage referred to in the press release was just an explanation for why the rover came up a little short of the expected distance. The treads were slipping slightly the whole time the rover climbed the gentle slope.
Here’s the official scoop on the bunny: http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/spotlight/opportunity/b19_20040304.html
Damn, I wanted there to be horned bunnies on Mars.
Even if that had to be ‘slightly … enhanced’.
Can you find the bunny on this month’s cover of Playnaut?
And I suppose the FY2005 budget request by NASA, which includes $145 MM for the Martian Holy Hand Grenade project is just a coincidence? Sure.