Curiosity is on the move again, looking for a place to stick its rock drill in

Jan 5, 2013 07:23 GMT  ·  By

Curiosity is on the move again, after spending the holidays taking shots of its surroundings. Granted, it hasn't gotten very far as it's still looking for a spot to test its rock drill for the first time.

During its photoshoot, Curiosity uncovered an interesting object, similar to the one that caused a stir a couple of months back.

In one of the raw images Curiosity sent back, which NASA is making available to anyone interested, a shiny object can be seen. The first time around, a similar shiny object proved rather intriguing, but in the end, it was determined to be a piece of plastic fallen off the rover.

That's not the case this time. That was the first assumption of the people that first spotted it, but NASA confirmed that it appears to be a rock and not something that fell off Curiosity.

It's probably not a particularly interesting rock from a scientific point of view, but it's a bright spot, quite literally, in the bleak Martian landscape.

Meanwhile, the rover is roving again and has reached a rocky area dubbed Snake River. It only moved three meters, about 10 feet, but all it needed was to get closer to the peculiar rock formation.

Curiosity on Mars (2 Images)

The shiny rock spotted by Curiosity
The Snake River formation, Curiosity's current location
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