NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its SHERLOC WATSON camera, located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm.
This image was acquired on Nov. 20, 2024 (Sol 1334) at the local mean solar time of 16:26:38.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Nowhere in this post do I see a proper explanation of what the fuck we're looking at here. It has to do with the Mars Rover... aaaand...?
What is "The abraded patch"? Is that something a casual observer is just supposed to know?
How does anybody expect anybody else to get interested in science or NASA when images with no context are seemingly the norm?
What makes this interesting? Why did they take a picture of it? What are we even looking at?
No? None of that information? Then who the fuck even cares?
It's a patch of rock where the rover used its abrasion tool. Calm down. You could have googled three words and saved yourself an entire whiney post.
I don't think we need users like Linktank around here.
Aside from the entitlement and total lack of self-awareness on display here, there are plenty of science-aware people who avoid social media precisely because of this kind of cretinous toxicity. I am inclined to increase my "engagement" here, and I've actually increased my scrutiny of this mission because of respectful and genuine questions I've seen online... but when I encounter aggressive BS like this, it doesn't feel worthwhile.
The mission website and associated media can answer basic, er, "questions" like those above, but I actually do think there's more of a need to connect the dots for those who want to actually get a feel for the seriously amazing work this mission is doing. To me Lemmy doesn't seem to be the kind of place where a more detailed guide should be hosted, but I'm open to ideas for how it could be done. I've actually been working for a while on a few posts for this instance myself, but it's a time-consuming process!
Your username works very well here ๐
I'm perhaps more jaded than you. I feel like science topics that cater to people that will spend five minutes writing a moronic post instead of 30 seconds learning about the topic are kind of a lost cause. But, who knows. Science education in the US begins around the age of 4. Perhaps there's ready-made materials we could leverage for people like this.