Posted on 10/18/2012 3:53:07 PM PDT by blam
NASA: We Still Don't Know What Those Shiny Particles On Mars Are, But They're Not From The Rover
Dina Spector
Oct. 18, 2012, 5:35 PM
NASA confirmed this afternoon that some bright particles found in a hole dug by the Curiosity's scooper are actually from Mars and not debris from the rover. This is the second round of shiny mysterious objects the rover has run into while scooping soil at Glenelg. The first was probably a piece of plastic or tape that fell off of the rover itself.
Adam Mann with WiredScience has more:
After last week’s plastic encounter, Curiosity’s science team worried the new particles might be man-made.
(snip)
Curiosity, which is 10 weeks into its two-year mission, has now collected three scoops of Martian soil. The third scoop is currently being analyzed by the rover's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument to determine what minerals are in it.
Here are some pictures from the scooping mission:
Three bite marks left in the Martian ground by the scoop on the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity are visible in this image taken by the rover's right Navigation Camera during the mission's 69th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 15, 2012). The third scoopful, collected on that sol, left the bite or pit farthest to the right. Each of the three bites is about 2 inches (5 centimeters) wide.
A sample of Martian soil that came from the third scoopful of material collected at the "Rocknest" patch of windblown dust and sand.
This image shows part of the small pit or bite created when NASA's Mars rover Curiosity collected its second scoop of Martian soil at a sandy patch called "Rocknest."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Strip mine the sh*t out of it! Get your ass to Mars!
I just hope NASA though of including a Trunk Monkey in that Rover...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=609edlJISf8
Dilithium
Plattnerite ... more valuable than onobtanium
Obama gold!
That last picture looks like south Georgia soil.
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