NASA's Curiosity rover studies a shiny object on Mars

Mars is a dusty place, so when something shiny appears, it comes off. NASA's Curiosity team released an update on its mission blog on Wednesday with a nice look at a brilliant mass sitting on the surface of the planet.

Curiosity's curiosity target is dubbed "Little Colonsay" and looks like a little nugget. The ChemCam of the mobile captured Monday a close-up view of the object.

"The planning team thinks it could be a meteorite because it's so brilliant," writes Susanne Schwenzer, member of the Curiosity team. . "But appearances can be deceptive, and the proof will come only from chemistry."

The Curiosity ChemCam is a suite of instruments that includes a camera, spectographs and a laser that helps NASA analyze the composition of Martian rocks and soil. The rover must investigate Little Colonsay with ChemCam to determine if it is a meteorite.

NASA has already spotted bright and shiny objects on Mars. A strange light piece seen by Curiosity in 2012 It turned out to be probably a small piece of plastic rover. Another Mystery particle of the same year was a bit of Mars.

NASA has identified a strange object resembling a snowflake like a piece of Martian rock earlier in 2018.

It will not be surprising that Little Colonsay turns out to be a meteorite. NASA's Rover Opportunity found an iron meteorite on Mars in 2008, the first time a meteorite of this type had been identified on another planet. Curiosity even found a giant specimen in 2014.