Posted on 10/17/2012 10:47:23 AM PDT by 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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(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Gold?
It'll be interesting to see what the analyzer makes of it...
1962 University of Vladivostok class ring.
Sorry, Comrades!
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’
I like your idea. Any hope that a few of our more egregious RINO’s might fall for the same trick?
Its a pull tab...
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.
Much better close up here. Looks like a piece of plastic or something.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/
The presence of aluminium would be diagnostic as well. Aluminum ore is typically formed in humid or wet environments.
Just spread the word that there’s free Obamaphones there, and let their inhuman nature take over...........
UNOBTANIUM!!!!!!!!!
They’ve discovered duct tape?
Find a penny, pick it up for good luck.
Great we sent up a rover with ADD.
just a shiny wrapper off a bar of gold pressed latinum.
Democrats distracted, may not be able to vote.
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