'Foreign object' found by Mars rover a rock flake,NASA
Washington, Aug 17 : A so-called "foreign object debris" spotted by Mars rover Curiosity and speculated to be a piece of spacecraft debris has turned out to be a very thin flake of rock, NASA has said.
The object in the image captured on August 13 also triggered speculation among scientists that the Curiosity rover might have shed a piece of itself.
But an analysis by Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instruments revealed that the object, which was officially referred to as "Pettegrove Point Foreign Object Debris" (PPFOD), only raised a false alarm, NASA said on Thursday.
"In fact it was found to be a very thin flake of rock, so we can all rest easy tonight - Curiosity has not begun to shed its skin," Curiosity team member Brittney Cooper wrote in a mission update of the analysis.
"Perhaps the target should have been given a different name befitting the theme of the current quadrangle in which Curiosity resides: 'Rabhadh Cearr', or 'False Alarm' in Scottish Gaelic," Cooper said.
The Curiosity team had reasons to worry as in 2012, the rover spotted an equally mysterious bright object on the surface that turned out to be a tiny piece of plastic material shed from the rover, CNET reported.
The rover is currently monitoring the dust opacity or "tau" in Gale crater as the global dust storm that started on Mars in June declines.
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Badminton coach arrested for raping 16-year-old girl in Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Apr 07 (PTI): A badminton coach was arrested for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl who was taking training from him, police said on Monday.
The matter came to light after the girl's grandmother found that the minor had sent some of her nude pictures from her (grandmother's) phone to an unknown number and she immediately alerted her parents, they said.
When confronted by her mother, the girl revealed that the coach had sexually abused her on multiple occasions under the guise of giving her additional training sessions and warned her against disclosing about it to anyone, police said.
According to the police, the victim's mother in a complaint stated that their daughter enrolled for badminton coaching at a sports centre here two years ago. The coach allegedly sexually abused and harassed her on multiple occasions. He even took her to his house where he sexually assaulted her.
After her class 10 exam, she went to her grandmother's house and that on March 30 she sent her nude photos from her grandmother's mobile phone to the coach on his insistence, the complainant alleged.
Based on the complaint, a case was registered against the coach, a native of Tamil Nadu, under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and he was arrested in the case on Thursday, a senior police officer said.
During interrogation, the accused confessed that he had sexually abused the girl on multiple occasions and that he had taken her nude photos which were also found on his phone. Nude photos of other girls were also found on his phone, the officer said.
