Shiny Object on Mars Update: Likely ‘Benign’ Plastic
Curiosity sol 62 ChemCam image detail. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Image processing courtesy 2di7 & titanio44 on Flickr.Lost earring? Cigarette butt? Those were just a couple of ideas tossed around loosely by the public about what thisunusual object could be, found laying near the Mars Curiosity rover. The rover team is still looking closely at the shiny object, seen in images of the sandy regolith near the rover, and they issued a report today saying their initial assessment is that the bright object is something from the rover, and not Martian material. It appears to be a shred of plastic material, “likely benign,” they said, but it has not been definitively identified.
A loose piece of plastic or insulating tape may have jarred free during the rover’s shaking of the sample of Martian regolith it recently scooped up.
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© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity Rover
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