On Oct. 9 the Mars rover Curiosity brought back some baffling photos of a shiny object while scooping up some of the planet’s red dust. The NASA scientists, and many people around the world were very excited to find out what this mysterious object was.
At first the scientists thought was just a small part of the rover that fell off while traveling. They also thought it was a weird rock that sitting on the surface. They didn’t want to say either way until they could do some tests to be sure.
On Oct. 11 Curiosity analyzed the object and found it was made of a form of igneous rock that is also found near active volcanoes on Earth. Edward Stolper of the California Institute of Technology says that on Earth the rock make up is usually due to water and magma crystallizing underneath the Earth’s surface. He added that because it is on a different planet there is no way he could be sure the rock was made in the same way.
If it turns out the rock is made from water, it is another hint that Mars had free flowing water in the past. In September the rover found pebbles that showed there could have been a fast flowing stream on the surface.
Curiosity will be doing some more experiments on the mysterious rock over the following days to see what else they can learn from it. The Mars rover has been hard at work since it landed on Aug. 5.