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Post by theshee on Oct 11, 2012 8:20:46 GMT 10
NASA's Mars rover has found a bright shiny object on the surface of the Red Planet. Cameras on the £1.5billion Curiosity spotted the mysterious object while it prepared to take its first soil sample. The find has got alien hunters in a frenzy, speculating it might be part of a UFO. But experts suspect the object is much more likely to be a part of the rover that has broken off. NASA has suspended testing while it investigates the fragment. If it does turn out to be part of Curiosity, it'll prompt fears the 'science lab on wheels' is falling apart under the strain of Mars' hostile atmosphere. The find is the latest dramatic twist in the two-year mission to learn if Mars ever harboured life. Last month the rover captured images of a rock formation that could only have been created by fast flowing water. Experts believe that particular site was once the bed of a fast-flowing river. www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4580277/Curiosity-rover-finds-shiny-object-on-Mars.html#ixzz28wB8dOoM
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Post by Aardvaaks on Oct 11, 2012 9:27:13 GMT 10
The line from NASA Yesterday is that it is a shiny bit of plastic from some part of the rover which has been lost??
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Post by Wes Gear on Oct 11, 2012 14:07:30 GMT 10
The line from NASA Yesterday is that it is a shiny bit of plastic from some part of the rover which has been lost?? That would make sense Aardvaaks, Nasa would take a close up of the ground under the Rover to see what had broken off.
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Post by Aardvaaks on Oct 11, 2012 18:53:34 GMT 10
It's a long shot Wes but it could have been part of the descent stage or parachute, but most likely off the rover itself, hopefully nothing too important. The word was that the descent rockets may have kicked up a lot of debris onto curiosity on landing?
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Post by brillbilly on Oct 12, 2012 8:47:27 GMT 10
Do you not see the poor little fella just stood they with its lovely glowing eyes.! It's so cute ;D
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2012 6:36:21 GMT 10
Ummmm is it just me or does that look like awfully undisturbed sand that shinny thing is sitting in?
If it was part of the rover wouldnt it be sitting on the surface, not half buried in the sand?
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Post by Wes Gear on Oct 17, 2012 16:03:40 GMT 10
Yeah seems it is not part of the rover or would NASA go to the trouble of picking it up and analyzing it. Mars Curiosity Rover to scoop up and analyze shiny Mars materialShiny objects found on the surface of Mars may, in fact, be native to the planet. Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory team sent commands to the Mars Curiosity Rover today to pick up a bit of the reflective stuff and, if all goes well, perform its first analysis of the landscape since landing. JPL says it will send commands to Curiosity today and will later analyze the scoop using “one of the Rover’s internal analytical instruments, the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument.” It will be further analyzed by a tool called the SAM, or Sample Analysis at Mars instrument. After taking high-resolution images of the first “shiny object,” the JPL team decided it was likely a piece of plastic or wire either from the Rover or from the craft that carried the Rover to Mars. However, after Curiosity picked up its second scoop, the team saw other pieces of reflective material within the clumps of Martian dirt. This scoopful was discarded when the team saw more of the shiny material in the hole left by Curiosity’s scoop. The team didn’t want to introduce foreign particles to Curiosity’s internal analysis tools, but after reevaluating, JPL believes this could be a natural part of the Mars landscape. Last week, Curiosity grabbed its first scoop and took video while it vibrated the regolith, or Martian dirt, to get rid of excess material. It later used the sample to clean the analysis tools and make sure no other debris was sitting in the Rover’s tubes. venturebeat.com/2012/10/15/mars-curiosity-third-scoop/
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Post by brillbilly on Oct 17, 2012 21:42:21 GMT 10
Somehow This doesn't look like this, even if i rotate the picture i cant line up the stones.
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Post by Wes Gear on Oct 17, 2012 23:16:22 GMT 10
Yeah Brill even the object looks a bit different, maybe the rover moved it to get a better look at it. But it must be the same object because NASA would not lie to us.
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Post by brillbilly on Oct 18, 2012 23:05:16 GMT 10
quote; because NASA would not lie to us.
No wes never would they tell porkies ;D
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