Rover Curiosity shoots semi-nude pictures of Kate Middleton.
(Agence dePresse)
Instead of photographing the Mars surface the rover sent pictures of the royal couple today. In this batch of photos William and Kate are seen around a pool during their vacation in France.
The photographs were received at the NASA control centre during the daily communication session with the robot to much applause.
The machine's powerful instruments were able to focus and zoom in on a target many miles away, just at the moment when Kate was taking off her clothes to jump into the water.
The photos are grainy, but it's possible to make out nudity in some places.
"These are the most amazing pictures sent by Curiosity yet," - said NASA engineer Fred Lapointe. "We haven't seen anything comparable to it. We are so excited." "It just positioned the camera, zoomed in, - and boom - there was Kate."
NASA scientists have been positively surprised by the instrument's many capabilities which they keep discovering as the Mars mission progresses. The rover's camera can pick up objects of interest automatically and beam them down to Earth via powerful radio transmitter.
There is a chance that today's success is a result of a mistake in the focusing module of the onboard computer.
However, given the amount and sophistication of electronics packed into the machine, it wouldn't be surprising if Kate was photographed due to a decision made by the artificial intelligence unit.
The photos will be published in the next week's issue of Nature.
