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Sorry, This NASA Mars Rover Image Doesn’t Show a Flying UFO

It’s never aliens, but at least there’s a good explanation for what it really is.

This story is part of Welcome to Mars, our series exploring the red planet.

Every morning, I make time to browse through raw images of Mars sent back by NASA’s rovers. I ooh and ah over the rock formations, and sometimes spot something goofy, like a mysterious black object hovering in a Perseverance rover image from Sunday.

The image comes from Percy’s left navigation camera. It shows a striking rock-strewn landscape and a hazy sky where the dark object appears.

So what’s going on here? It’s not aliens. A Reddit discussion of the image in a group dedicated to Mars resulted in some humorous takes on what it might be, like an ant or a plastic bag. The black shape resembles a speck of dirt or a piece of debris flying over Jezero Crater, but it’s not any of those things.

The dark object in the sky doesn’t actually exist. It’s a result of a camera artifact issue called «bad» pixels. «They are caused by micron-sized pieces of debris on the detector. Most/all imagers have these kinds of artifacts,» imaging scientist Justin Maki said in an email statement from NASA JPL. «They are generally only noticeable when the camera acquires images of the sky or some otherwise flat radiometric surface.»

If you’re not convinced, check out another left Navcam image from Sunday. The same dark streak appears, but this time it’s in the middle of a sandy landscape.

The bad-pixels issue has reared its head at other times. NASA’s Curiosity rover, which is exploring the Gale Crater in a different area of Mars, snapped a similar sky «object» in early October. As with the Percy image, it appeared as a dark spot floating in the air.

Perseverance camera team members addressed the «odd tiny black speck» artifacts in a blog post last year in relation to the rover’s mast-mounted cameras. Image processors are aware of the problem pixels and correct for them. We see the specks in the raw images sent back by the rovers because the photos haven’t been cleaned up yet.

Perseverance has been in residence on Mars since early 2021 and it’s already witnessed plenty of real-life oddball objects, like this spaghetti-like bundle of debris and a shiny piece of foil left over from its landing operations.

Camera specks are a fact of life for the Mars rovers. Our technology is amazing, but it’s not perfect. If anything, it’s a reminder of just how impressive an achievement the rovers are. Wheeled laboratories. On Mars. Sending snapshots home almost every day. Wow.

Technologies

The Black Friday Gaming Deals You Want Are Already Here, Including PlayStation, Xbox and Alienware

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The Black Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Is at a Record $443 Off at Amazon for Black Friday

A Galaxy Z Fold 7 price war between Amazon and Samsung gives us a record-low deal for one color.

If you’re looking for a foldable iPhone, you’re gonna need to wait until 2026, but if you’re looking for the best foldable phone of 2025, there are great deals on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 right now at both Amazon and Samsung, with the former dropping the black version of Samsung’s foldable phone to a record-low $1,557. All other models are $1,600 at both Amazon and Samsung, a $400 discount.

Samsung’s unique foldable phones had an awkward adolescence, but after getting her hands on the new lineup, CNET reviewer Abrar Al-Heet confirms that the latest Z Fold 7 «just feels right.» For one, it’s incredibly sleek at just 8.9mm thick when closed or 4.2mm thick when open, which is so thin you may even forget that it’s foldable.

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.

Despite weighing just 215 grams, this foldable features some serious hardware. It has a 6.5-inch cover screen and an 8-inch interior display with a fluid 120Hz refresh rate. It’s equipped with a cutting-edge Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and 12GB of RAM to support tons of helpful AI features and functions, and comes with Android 16 and Samsung One UI 8 right out of the box.

The camera system is also pretty impressive, boasting a 200-megapixel rear camera, 12-megapixel ultrawide shooting and a 10-megapixel front camera on both the cover and interior screens. Plus, it’s equipped with a 4,400-mAh battery for all-day use.

Why this deal matters

With an unbelievably sleek design and cutting-edge hardware, the impressive Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is our favorite foldable phone on the market. But it also comes with a staggering $2,000 price tag, and if you’re hoping to get your hands on one, this $443 discount is a way to rack up some serious savings and help cushion the blow of its considerable cost. Just be sure to get your order in soon, as we doubt this deal will remain live for long.

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I Almost Missed This Deal Within a Deal for Baseus’ Bose-Infused Headphones and Earbuds

Baseus’ new Inspire XH1, XP1 and XC1 models with Sound by Bose are 23% to 33% off for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But Baseus throws in its BC1 clip-on earbuds or other «free» bonus items to make the deal even sweeter.

I gave CNET Editors’ Choice awards to Baseus’ Bose-infused Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones and Inspire XP1 earbuds because they’re well designed and sound decent for what they cost. I also liked Baseus’ Inspire XC1 clip-on earbuds, which have dual- drivers and earned a spot on CNET’s best clip-on earbuds list

Last week all three models were selling for around $110 (though they have higher list prices), but they’re now discounted to around $100 for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. That’s a deal I’d highlight on its own, but if you click through to any of those models’ Amazon product pages an look closely you’ll see that each is eligible for «one free item» with purchase. 

Read more: Best wireless earbuds of 2025

You have to click the «how to claim link» and then add one of the three products to the your cart. Once one of the headphones or earbuds is added to your cart, you can click a button on the left side of screen (above the stars for average ratings) that switches the view from «qualifying items» to «benefit items.» You can then add Baseus’s BC1 clip-on earbuds, which list for $40, to your cart as a free item. Baseus’ step-up Basues MC1 Pro ($48 for Black Friday) and Inspire XC1 clip-on buds sound better, but the BC1 are fine for casual use.

If the BC1 earbuds option doesn’t thrill you, there are other freebies you can opt for. Just go back to the Amazon product page for the Inspire XH1, XP1 and XC1 and you’ll see options for one free item with $100, $90, $51 and $46 purchases. The $90 benefit item is a 30W dual-port fast charger (list price $20), which is decent, and the $51 benefit item is a retractable USB-C cable ($19 list) that’s useful. Don’t bother with the $46 benefit item. 

You can read my full reviews of the Inspire XH1 headphones here and the Inspire XP1 earbuds here. And here’s my quick take of the Inspire XC1 earbuds:

Like Baseus’ noise-isolating Inspire XP1 earbuds that I rated highly, the Inspire XC1 feature «Sound by Bose» and a more premium design than earlier Baseus earbuds. The XC1 don’t sound as good as the XP1, but they sound good for open earbuds and are equipped with dual drivers, one of which is a Knowles balanced-armature driver that helps improve treble performance. While they don’t produce as much bass as noise-isolating earbuds like the Inspire XP1, their bass performance is better than I expected. The buds’ sound is pretty full, especially in quieter environments, though they do better with less bass-heavy material (I did notice a bit of distortion at higher volumes with certain tracks with harder driving bass).

While I prefer the design and fit of Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds (as well as the design of their case) and think the Bose buds sound more natural and a tad better overall, the much more affordable Inspire XC1 fit comfortably and offer top-tier sound for clip-on open earbuds (and they play louder than the Bose), as well as decent voice-calling performance with good background noise reduction.

Read more: Best Black Friday headphones deals  

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