Curiosity Spies Unidentified, Metallic Object On Mars

MrSeb writes "A few hundred million miles away on the surface of the Red Planet, Mars rover Curiosity has photographed an unidentified, shiny, metallic object. Now, before you get too excited, the most likely explanation is that bright object is part of the rover that has fallen off — or perhaps some debris from MSL Curiosity's landing on Mars, nine weeks ago. There is the distinct possibility, however, that this object is actually native to Mars, which would be far more exciting. It could be the tip of a larger object, or perhaps some kind of exotic, metallic Martian pebble (a piece of metal ore, perhaps). Close-up imagery will now be captured and analyzed, and within the next few days we should know if it's simply a piece of Curiosity — or something a whole lot more exciting."

Comments

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Call me a cynic, but even if the entire planet was made of solid gold, it still wouldn't make it economically feasible to go there.

A puddle of water there would be way more valuable.

Re:Wow

[Phics]

If the entire planet was made of solid gold, it would make it an economic disaster to go there.

Re:Wow

[xtal]

Massive gold deposits would make settlement there easier, but not for economic reasons. Gold is easily alloyed and makes a great material for all sorts of things. Like electric machinery, needed to process ore, water, ventilation, etc.

Re:Wow

[Jeng]

Gold is easily alloyed and makes a great material for all sorts of things.

Radiation shielding.

Re:Wow

[englishknnigits]

The terms liberal and conservative are almost completely meaningless today. People think liberal is a synonym for Democrat and conservative is a synonym for Republican and misuse those terms accordingly.

Arguing that the Constitution was designed to grow as needed is almost entirely unrelated to whether or not they thought we should have a small government. They certainly thought we should have a federal government that was restrained by the constitution and its amendments. The idea was to enumerate the powers of the federal government in the Constitution. If we wanted to expand those powers, we would have to amend the constitution through an intentionally difficult process where a super majority of states agree with the change. As of right now, neither Democrats nor Republicans respect limitations imposed on the federal government by the Constitution. They think "if 51% of people want it, we can do it!" which is little more than mob rule. This isn't exactly new but I do think it has steadily been getting worse.

Re:If its is alien origin

[geekoid]

Yes, becasue NASA wouldn't want the huge amount of money that would poor into the project to get there before anyone else, and the military sure wouldn't be interested.

It's in the governments, the military, and NASAs best interests to find an alien artifact, you moron.

I look forward to hearing about the as a conspiracy for the next 20 years~

Re:Screw that...

[Xenkar]

Statistically, mentally ill people aren't more or less likely to attack you than a normal person unless said mentally ill person is a schizophrenic female. In which case the chance is doubled.

The reason why we don't send mentally ill people is because we'd also have to send a supply of whatever medication they'll need to keep balanced and productive plus a psychiatrist for therapy.

But I think a sparse Mars colony would be perfect for my socialphobia. I'd only have to get used to at most twenty people.