Lost earring? Cigarette butt? Those were just a couple of ideas tossed around loosely by the public about what this unusual object could be, found laying near the Mars Curiosity rover. The rover team is still looking closely at the shiny object, seen in images of the sandy regolith near the rover, and they issued a report today saying their initial assessment is that the bright object is something from the rover, and not Martian material. It appears to be a shred of plastic material, "likely benign," they said, but it has not been definitively identified.
MORE: http://www.universetoday.com/97798/shiny-object-on-mars-update-likely-benign-plastic/
See also...
NASA: Mars rover spots bright glint
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2012/10/09/mars-curiosity-rover-bright-glint/1622603/
Curiosity got shaved?
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/10/09/curiosity-got-shaved/
NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity: Work Resumes With First Scooped Sample
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121010152853.htm
