From universetoday.com:

The Curiosity Mars rover has found some strange-looking little things on Mars – you’ve likely heard of the Mars ‘flower,’ the piece  of benign plastic from the rover itself, and other bright  flecks of granules in the Martian soil. Now the rover has imaged a small  metallic-looking protuberance on a rock. Visible in the image above (the green  lines point to it), the protuberance appears to have a high albedo and even  projects a shadow on the rock below. The image was taken with the right Mastcam  on Curiosity on Sol 173  — January 30, 2013 here on Earth — (see the original raw image here), and was pointed out to us  by Elisabetta Bonora, an image editing enthusiast from Italy.

“The corresponding image from the left Mastcam is not there,” said Bonora via  email, “which is a real shame because this would allow us to make an  anaglyph.”

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/99750/another-weird-shiny-thing-on-mars-2/#ixzz2KDl7cnhJ

As Bonora pointed out, the protuberance seems different than the rock on  which it sits – it could be composed of material more resistant to erosion than  the rest and similar material could be within the rock, or it could be something  that is “grown” on the rock. However, it looks fairly smooth, and in fact it  is not covered by dust as is the case for metal surfaces that tend to clean  easily.

But “small” is the operative word here, as the little protuberance is  probably about 0.5 cm tall, or even smaller.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/99750/another-weird-shiny-thing-on-mars-2/#ixzz2KDlMaR75

Whatever it is, the weird little shiny thing is interesting, and we hope to have  more details about it soon from one of the rover scientists.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/99750/another-weird-shiny-thing-on-mars-2/#ixzz2KDlg7lPw

They made those cameras perhaps too well on Curiosity, eh?

It’s getting harder and harder for NASA to come up with the “optical illusion” explanation for all of these anomalies that Curiosity is finding.

Of course, even if a little critter happens to hop across Curiosity’s path and it snaps a quick shot off, will NASA publically announce it?

Another Weird Shiny Thing on Mars

Hat tip to the Daily Grail.