Sparkling bits in the dirt

Curiosity has finished its second scoop and dump procedure and should have completed the third and final scoop and dump by now. After that we should see some interesting science being done soon with the delivery of the mission's first sample to CheMin and SAM. But there is interesting news about something in the soil that's being done. From yesterday's press bulletin on the mission's website:

The rover's second scoopful, collected on Sol 66 (Oct. 12), was intentionally discarded on Sol 67 due to concern about particles of bright material seen in the hole dug by the scooping. Other small pieces of bright material in the Rocknest area have been assessed as debris from the spacecraft. The science team did not want to put spacecraft material into the rover's sample-processing mechanisms. Confidence for going ahead with the third scooping was based on new assessment that other bright particles in the area are native Martian material. One factor in that consideration is seeing some bright particles embedded in clods of Martian soil. Further investigations of the bright particles are planned, including some imaging in the Sol 69 plan.

These white sparkly things didn't really stand out as a piece of spacecraft material would but you can definitely see them even without MAHLI.

Sol 67 MastCam shot. The most prominent white particle is highlighted (NASA/JPL/MSSS)

 Here is MAHLI's image of the largest white particle.

Sol 67 MAHLI shot; the particle is located near the lower left corner (NASA/JPL/MSSS)

I haven't a clue what it is and that my friends is the beauty of scientific inquiry; ignorance combined with the will to learn. And we're here to learn about Mars' natural history! Stay tuned.