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Comment by thesis | Hacker News Reader

Have you seen a picture of the "bright object" this post references? Unless it's in that picture and I'm just missing it.

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A reddit user[1] enhanced a closeup: http://i.imgur.com/99jDI.jpg

This was taken from http://www.universetoday.com/97774/curiosity-finds-something...

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/116q6s/curiosity_fi...

As a casual observer, I would think that it is just some bit of material that fell off of the rover.

Which I'd imagine shouldn't ever happen, and that's why they're taking a very cautious approach to using the robotic arm until they can rule that out.

I wouldn't worry. As anyone who has dismantled technology can tell you, usually anything up to 90% of the small screws in any piece of equipment are entirely unnecessary, and in many cases seem to have manifested themselves spontaneously out of the vacuum. Or possibly the hoover.

The best theory I've seen is that it's a piece of foil tape that's crumbled in the harsh cold. Hopefully that's all it is.

There does appear to be a screw hole with a missing screw, though: http://postimage.org/image/ouvupuniz/full/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjEgTuCFLU4&t=0m36s

Nice find!

Could possibly wire insulation: http://imgur.com/a/HR9DS#0

With a jovial tone, I believe this is a case of Martian littering. Looks like part of a Martian Chips packet to me.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/images/pia16225-Sol61-Mastcam34...

According to the article it's "In the foreground, near the bottom of the image." I do see something near the bottom, halfway in the gap between the rover, that looks grey.... maybe metallic.

For context, I think this is where you can see it in the photo in the OP article: http://i.minus.com/ivmqgpKATRHlj.jpg

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