Curiosity rover finds mysterious shiny object on Mars

Here's the scoop and there's the object.

(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech )

Much like a toddler in a sandbox, the Curiosity rover has been busy scooping up the Martian soil lately. All that digging around was brought to a halt by the discovery of a small, bright object. NASA is currently trying to sort out what it is.

Here's a slightly closer look at the object. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech )

According to NASA, "Curiosity's first scooping activity appeared to go well on October 7. Subsequently, the rover team decided to refrain from using the rover's robotic arm on October 8 due to the detection of a bright object on the ground that might be a piece from the rover."

NASA is attempting to identify the bit of mystery stuff to assess what impact it may have on the rover's sampling activities.

There's plenty of speculation as to what the object is. As NASA suspects, it could be a bit of the rover itself that has fallen off. It could also be part of the descent system that helped the... [Read more]