Mystery Over Shiny Particles On Mars Gets More Exciting

TBI ^ | 10-17-2012 | Dina Spector

[blam]

Mystery Over Shiny Particles On Mars Gets More Exciting

Dina Spector
Oct. 17, 2012, 12:32 PM

NASA

NASA's Curiosity rover had been on Mars 61 days when she gathered her first scoop of soil.

Before the one-ton robot could finish sifting through her first small bucket of dust, however, all the excitement shifted to a shiny object found in the sand near the rover.

After reviewing images, the Curiosity team determined that the bright material was probably a piece of plastic from the rover and not material from Mars.

Or so they thought.

The rover collected its second scoop of Martian soil at the "Rocknest" site on Sol 66. More bright particles were found. Believing these particles were also tiny pieces of rover, the team decided not to run the dirt sample through Curiosity's analysis instrument to avoid contaminating the mechanism with Earth debris. The scoop was thrown away. That same day, however, Curiosity snapped an image showing part of the hole left when Curiosity took her first scoop.

The team noticed something different this time.

They saw that a light-toned particle was embedded in a clump of Martian soil, leading researchers to believe that the material could be native to Mars. This find completely overturned their original argument: These mystery particles are not something from the rover.

Following the discovery, a third scoop of soil was collected. This sample will now be run through Curiosity's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument to figure out what it's made of, and hopefully

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[ncpatriot]

Gold?

[Dead Corpse]

Interesting. Odd that they'd think that something dug up from centimeters under the surface might have been something that just "fell off" the rover.

It'll be interesting to see what the analyzer makes of it...

[Buckeye McFrog]

1962 University of Vladivostok class ring.

Sorry, Comrades!

[gr8eman]

Too bad we can start a gold rush to Mars and get all the liberals to go for it...just to find out it’s pyrite. Then we won’t let them come back! Just dreamin’

[Dead Corpse]

I like your idea. Any hope that a few of our more egregious RINO’s might fall for the same trick?

[Antoninus]

GOOOOOOOLLLLLDDDDD!!!!!

OK, that's unlikely. But maybe....

AAAALUMINUUUUUMMM!!!!!

[B.O. Plenty]

Its a pull tab...

[SengirV]

I believe the 1st one in question was sitting on the surface, not part of a scoop. They threw away the scoop thinking that the soil was contaminated. Now they are finding them in scoops, apparently.

[cripplecreek]

Much better close up here. Looks like a piece of plastic or something.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/

[ruiner]

The presence of aluminium would be diagnostic as well. Aluminum ore is typically formed in humid or wet environments.

[Red Badger]

Just spread the word that there’s free Obamaphones there, and let their inhuman nature take over...........

[cripplecreek]

[wxgesr]

UNOBTANIUM!!!!!!!!!

[Leep]

They’ve discovered duct tape?

[Defiant]

Find a penny, pick it up for good luck.

[DYngbld]

Before the one-ton robot could finish sifting through her first small bucket of dust, however, all the excitement shifted to a shiny object found in the sand near the rover.

Great we sent up a rover with ADD.

[muawiyah]

just a shiny wrapper off a bar of gold pressed latinum.

[Miles the Slasher]

Hmmm...looks to me like a piece of a illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator.

[bmwcyle]

Democrats distracted, may not be able to vote.