Wow! What is this…? Either 1) a “nut” (fruit) 2) a seed or 3) an insect but I will go for a fruit of some kind. The broken edge resembles the appearance and texture of a nut or a seed and since there are no visible plants in the near vicinity of Curiosity’s landing site; it must have been carried by flowing water. This is a tiny scoop and if you imagine the size of planet Mars; you get the staggering huge picture. It is like your big toe stepping on a peanut on planet earth meaning the planet is swarming with life.
The sand and gravel is not dry; it appears damp and moist.
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Yum! Curiosity Rover Swallows 1st Mars Sample, Finds Odd Bright Stuff
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 18 October 2012 Time: 03:06 PM ET
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has swallowed its first tiny bite of Martian soil, after standing down for a spell while scientists checked out some strange bright bits in the dirt.
SNIP
Work at Rocknest slowed after Curiosity dug its second scoop on Oct. 12, when researchers noticedoddly bright flecks at the bottom of the hole. The team dumped the scoop out, worried that it might contain debris that had flaked off Curiosity.
They already knew that some tiny rover pieces are littering the Martian ground, after spotting a bright shred of what appears to be plastic on Oct. 7. Team members have since identified five or six other such bits, which may have fallen off Curiosity's sky-crane descent stage during landing on Aug. 5.
"We went super-paranoid," Grotzinger told reporters today. The team determined that "if this stuff is man-made, we better make sure that we're not taking any of it in."
So Curiosity moved to a slightly different location, and then took lots of pictures to make sure that the surface was pristine before making scoop number three. If any bright flecks are indeed present in the sample, they're naturally occurring, the mission team reasons, since any rover pieces would be restricted to the surface.
All that being said, Curiosity scientists now believe the bright soil flecks are indeed indigenous to Mars. They could be minerals that are part of the soil-forming process, Grotzinger said, or reflective surfaces created by the cleaving of ordinary dirt.
The team aims to fire its mineral-identifying laser, which is part of Curiosity's ChemCam instrument, at some of the pieces in the next few days to get a better idea of what they actually are.
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