Curiosity rover detects bright object on surface of Mars...

If you click the video and actually follow it to its youtube page. The comment at the top right now says its a piece of the insulation that came off during vibration. I don't know if that just the users opinion or also that of the NASA folks. But if you can find a NASA thing that says it's insulation, than I'd say go on that and find pictures of the actual insulation, and try to get a look at how its pieces look. I've seen Styrofoam flake off in all sort of funny shaped shreds.

Since you posted the pic, doesn't this ground look ripe for gardening? I could totally run a drip-line on that. It looks dry, but rich.

Originally posted by nomadros
reply to post by AmberLeaf

 

mmmm....so to get this right, a man made machine gets landed on a planet, moves a couple of hundred meters, sticks a 3 inch wide scoop in the ground and finds something shiny. So either A) the place is crawling with this stuff, B) it's the luckiest coincidence in history or C) something fell off the machine (Nasa's fav). My question is why don't they stick the scoop back in and see if any more bits fall off the rover *cough*

Imo the place is crawling with life forms. To bad they did not show this in proper colors.
We are all going to sit here talking about the bug while the guy who eats the bugs is probably riding the Rover right beside it!

Look at the outline of that thing and think - it's clearly a Martian Crawfish. Spitting image of one if I ever saw one. LOL

I agree.. it doesn't look like a rock - or at least it's not the same as the rocks around it.

Originally posted by DeadSeraph

Originally posted by gortex
That is an interesting image , it does seem to look like a wing even down to the attachment at the end ....

Very interesting. At that scale, it certainly does seem to have some organic looking properties (particularly the little s-curve that extrudes out from the center of the object). Exciting stuff!

They were afraid to scoop more in case they hit a nest. Most things living on Mars would probably eat minerals...be built for low water as water would come from the minerals they eat mostly. Larger creatures would get most of what they need from the insects and smaller creatures they eat.
I believe there are larger mineral eaters also. I saw a thing that looked ant eater like, of course everyone says it is a rock as everyone seems to believe Mars is nothing BUT rocks!

Darn it .
As much as it looks like a shell of a shrimp,
the indention halfway across it does fit the bill
to be where the tie wrap was to hold this bit in place.
I'm still holding a small amount of hope for a Martian
crustacean .

Originally posted by tigpoppa
The object shown in the images COULD be a rock which is why its important, parts of a rover do not just fall off, well lets hope NASA hasnt gotten that shoddy. Keep in mind mars is arid or having no rain and cant support life. Rocks here on earth are shiny like this in the same climates when minerals create a sheen like surface on the rock from a glaze or varnish that can preserve organic compounds or biological traces of life. This rock could contain evidence of life in the past on Mars and why NASA would not disturb the rock. Give NASA time to dig up a new rover to analyze the specimen further. This is PAYDIRT in geology terms and the Curiosity rover lacks the instrumentation to study the rock so the next rover will target that same spot with the right analytical tools since a discovery like this could be a potential gold mine.

Its not that it is "shiny" that is important, its what if anything is under the shine that is of interest.

Here is a great link to read more about the life cycle of glaze formation on desert rocks which is an arid climate much like mars. Rock Coatings

edit on 9-10-2012 by tigpoppa because: Science!

The Mars Phoenix Lander also saw a frost of "Diamond Dust" falling in the mornings. Finally, it's worth noting that fog has also been seen collecting in martian canyons and craters.

(It is more complicated than that because the amount of water vapor and atmospheric pressure vary a lot from place to place, just like on Earth). At about this temperature, the relative humidity reaches 100%. So when it gets cold, Mars has precipitation.

However, this precipitation most likely takes the form of frost, rather than rain or snow. The ground is likely to be colder than the air (especially on cold clear nights), and so air hitting the ground cools and the water freezes to the ground as frost. Viking II (a Mars lander in the 1970's) saw frost on the ground some mornings.
www.npr.org...

Fascinating...(raises one eyebrow) Looks organic to me...but I have one question...why in the world is this not in color? Why do they still thnk it's scientifically beneficial to still take black and white cameras to another planet? Oh glorious color photos, where art thou?

Maybe someone assembling the rover ate shrimp for lunch and they gave rover a little bit. Rovers last real meal before getting shipped off to a place without food.

Originally posted by paratus
a little brighter in this:

mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

bottom middle silver in color.

They are probably busy as heck now making a tie shaped like this object so they can say that is what it is.

Originally posted by thehal
It does look like a shriveled up bug. But it could have fallen off the rover too, but not be part of the rover. I've seen many images with small pebbles and dirt spread on the top of the rover from when it made it's decent and the rockets on the sky crane kicked up dirt, dust and debris that landed on it. So it could be a rock from the landing region that the rover carried with it, and it fell of when it stopped.

Also it could be something that stuck to one of the rover tires and fell of when it stopped as well.

I haven't read anywhere that the item only showed up after the scoop picked up a load of dirt, so I assumed that the item was there before the scoop was activated or at least before the actual scooping of dirt. So it could have been some piece of debris kicked up by the sky crane that was lodged in the scoop arm somewhere and it fell of when activated.

I also wanted to mention that for the user openyourmind1262 to have such a user name, they sure are close minded...

Bottom left see it there before it is in the scoop.
mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

remember, we dont know how long its been dead yet, it could have decomposed a bit, i think its a fly of some sort, like a mosquito

ow btw, why is there no damage to the ground, it scoped up sand right ? so, wheres the hole

Very interesting

Even more curious is why so much effort has been put into Mars and nothing about the Moon.

Does NASA know a very big secret about Mars?

Mars has been speculated about supporting life since the early 17th century or even before that?

Originally posted by Char-Lee

Originally posted by paratus
a little brighter in this:

mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

bottom middle silver in color.

They are probably busy as heck now making a tie shaped like this object so they can say that is what it is.

That's funny
NASA releases new "shrimp clips" to consumer market.
"They're just like on the rover, and you can keep your chips fresh!"
Silver, small and lightweight.
Only $24.99

Originally posted by Staroth
Here's what I see.

edit on 9-10-2012 by Staroth because: (no reason given)

Anyone else see what looks like a reflection of an Alien head near the bottom of the photo above the circular hole??

I know its just my eyes seeing things but it is there and kind of earie considering this is a photo of something on Mars!

I can clearly see the elongated head, huge black eyes, nose and a mouth!

Other than that, it does look like a shell of some creature!

could it be possible when the rover was launched from earth on its climb towards exiting earths atmosphere,,, it crashed into a bunch of insects? .... im dont know all he specs but im guessing the rover was contained in another rocket-like vehicle,,,,but if people must say that image is of an insect,, is this a possibility?

reply to post by Char-Lee

Well if that's it on the ground then this shows you the scale. I think it's clearly something that fell off the rover. It's too implausible to think it's anything else. Now that I see this image I don't know why there's so much fuss about this. I can only think that people don't know about this image.

This (bottom center; the light colored thing pebble; zoom in):
mars.jpl.nasa.gov - 0061ML0316000000E1_DXXX.jpg...

Sometimes I think the smart people play the part just to make others look like fools. They can a) point out the error; the stupidity b) let them be dumb and laugh at their delusions.

So the rover survives the journey to mars unscathed,survives the landing unscathed,starts to dig and bits start falling of,however this dose seem the most likely explanation.

I Know I know! It's a used Condum!

I wonder if this is hunted or the hunter of the Martian bunnies?

Of course the rover is just falling apart...LOL just like the moving Martian Bunny was a piece of that lander...