Tuesday 9 October 2012

What has Curiosity found on Mars?

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Images have come through of Curiosity finding some strange little object on the surface of Mars, but it is not yet known what it is.

There is speculation that it could be a tiny shard of the MSL descent mechanisms that chipped off as it came to land on the red planet. But what if it's something that was already there?

Right now until researchers have looked into it further we can only speculate as to what this strange little Martian object could be.

NASA states on the mission page: "Curiosity’s first scooping activity appeared to go well on Oct. 7. Subsequently, the rover team decided to refrain from using the rover’s robotic arm on Oct. 8 due to the detection of a bright object on the ground that might be a piece from the rover. Instead of arm activities during the 62nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission, Curiosity is acquiring additional imaging of the object to aid the team in identifying the object and assessing possible impact, if any, to sampling activities."

Bits of Curiosity, or something else entirely? We'll have to wait and see.

Via [Universe Today]

No comments:

Post a Comment