New ‘Shiny’ Objects Found by Curiosity Rover Are Likely Indigenous

[n2doc]

A bright particle found inside a scoop hole created by the Curiosity rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Last weekend, the Mars Curiosity rover scooped out a few “bites” in the small, sandy dune known as Rocknest and inside the second scoop hole was a small, shiny particle, as we reported earlier. This speck – and others like it in the pit — is different than the previous object that looked like plastic and may have come from the rover itself. After some analysis, the MSL science team thinks the shiny particle is just part of the soil on Mars.

“As the science team thought about it more and more, the bright object is about the same size as the granules that it’s in and it is not uniformly bright,” said John Grotziner, MSL project scientist. “We went back and forth, and the majority of the science team thinks this is indigenous to Mars.”

And so, Grotziner said, these shiny objects likely represent a science opportunity rather than an engineering hazard.


http://www.universetoday.com/98080/new-shiny-objects-found-by-curiosity-rover-are-likely-indigenous/

[TrogL]

1. There's gold in them thar hills!!!

[DreamGypsy]

2. Wow, shiny objects on Mars...

I thought that this post was going to report that the first extraterrestrial 'Women's Issues' had been discovered.

http://jezebel.com/5915365/romneys-campaign-calls-womens-issues-nothing-but-shiny-objects-of-distraction

Go Curiousity!!

[longship]

3. Crystal of dilithium?

But Cap'n, I canno push it any faster. The dilithium crystals willno take it.

[Odin2005]

4. Looks like a little nugget of gold or silver.

Let's send all the teabaggers to go there, they can be all rugged individualists digging for gold on Mars.