cylinder object near Saturn

[Mikey]

Well, who says that they are not processed though?

I think we have a misconception regarding the terms:

Initially, with "raw images" I referred to the images with the same title on the Cassini/Mars Rover websites. To which extent "raw" the images are, and how NASA defines "raw", I do not know. I would call an image "raw" if it reproduces the original on the space probe without altering resolution, color, noise, etc.

So, the term "processed" I used was not accurate, because as you say, there are multiple data format conversions from Mars/Saturn to your desktop. That is a kind of processing. With "processing" I meant "preparing (enhancing) for scientific presentation" e.g. Press Image Releases.

It could be, that NASA's terminus technicus "raw" means "totally manipulated". But I regularly browse through those images and I could not find evidence of manipulation. Censorship, probable.

 

[GRiM]

I had problems finding this picture and I can´t tell you much about it but it sure does look like a censoring.

and why the use such a agressive jpg compression?

Added
(Please note that this article contain lots of speculation and ..fantasy :)
_http://www.enterprisemission.com/oh_my_god.htm Richard Hogland´s article about SOHO.

On Wednesday, June 24, 1998, at 7:16 p.m., EDT, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint NASA/ESA spacecraft, mysteriously went "off-line." This unlikely event occurred just weeks after a series of sensational observations that literally shook the world of astronomy to its core. Given the nature of the observations this "loss of contact" immediately rang alarm bells to TEM researchers, and led to the usual checks of the "ritual pattern" NASA and JPL have repetitively used in numerous prior mission milestones.

This conclusion was reinforced when it was announced a few months later that SOHO had been literally given a "poison pill" - a series of mistaken commands and improper programming that left the spacecraft drifting and unable to relay images and data from it's bevy of instruments.

Under any other circumstances, the loss of such an important and productive mission would have been merely tragic. But considering the work that SOHO had been doing just prior to it's "malfunction," the ramifications took on a new and ominous light.

You see, SOHO -- sent up to study the Sun's chromosphere and internal mechanics -- had been comet spotting.

At the recent Seattle conference, TEM principal investigator Richard Hoagland was approached by an audience member who related that she had been surfing the site, and through a "back door" serendipitously dropped into an ftp directory not accessible through the regular web pages. It was here that she found a curious and disturbing image buried amongst the "official" SOHO files ...

L to R, top to bottom, Officer Barbrady, Chef, Mr. Hat, Mr. Garrison, the Greys, Mrs. Cartman,
Eric Cartman, SOHO/Kenny, Kyle, the dog, Stan, Wendy, and Ike.

It was the cast of South Park, a weekly adult oriented cartoon on the Comedy Central network. Except that one of the characters, Kenny, had been replaced by a crude image of the SOHO spacecraft, and two "grey" aliens from an early episode are seen standing behind the residents of South Park. The image "they_killed.jpg" can be found at: http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/images/they_killed.jpg [NOTE: 12/23/00 04:11 PM - Upon receiving an e-mail from SOHO project scientist Joe Gurman on 11/8/98, I have learned that this link no longer works. The FTP directory in which it resided is also now replaced by a web page.]

(and so on..)

 

[Wolner]

The cylinder is reminiscent of the object purportedly captured on the final frame of film transmitted from a Soviet Phobos mission before it ceased transmission.

Great stuff GRiM! The image from the non-NASA Clementine Moon mission (which you've lifted from Joe Skipper's excellent site) contains clear evidence of the use of image tampering. FWIW Mr Skipper cites the recently released 'holes on Mars' images as further examples of official fudging of released imagery. In the case of the 'holes', Joe Skipper claims that an inky blot has been inserted to obscure something else.