'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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Waqf (Amendment) Bill 'assault' on Constitution: Sonia Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday termed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill as a "brazen assault" on the Constitution, saying it was part of the BJP's strategy to keep society in a state of "permanent polarisation".
Hours after the Lok Sabha passed the Waqf amendment bill, Gandhi said the bill was "bulldozed" through in the lower house.
Addressing Congress MPs at a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party in Samvidhan Sadan here, she also said that the One Nation, One Election Bill is another subversion of the Constitution and the party would strongly oppose it.
"Whether it is education, civil rights and liberties, our federal structure or conduct of elections, the Modi government is dragging the country into an abyss where our Constitution will remain on paper and we know their intention is to demolish even that," she charged.
"It is vital for all of us to continue to fight for what is right and just, to expose Modi government's failing and intention to turn India into a surveillance state," Gandhi told MPs at the meeting.
All party MPs, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, were present at the meeting.
Sonia Gandhi also alleged that the prime minister has rebranded, repackaged and marketed numerous initiatives taken during 2004-2014 as his own personal accomplishments. That too needs to be exposed through our own public outreach activities, she asserted.
Speaking on the functioning of both houses of Parliament, she charged that the Leaders of Opposition are not allowed to speak and the treasury benches are often found to be creating disturbance in a bid to not allow the Congress to raise their issues.
Noting that the BJP members aggressively target Congress-ruled state governments, with "total falsehoods", she urged party MPs to be equally aggressive and raise the failures and mis-governance in BJP-ruled states.
This will mean much more pointed homework and research on our part, she noted.
The Lok Sabha passed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill well past midnight after a 12-hour debate.
The Bill was passed after all amendments moved by the opposition members were rejected by voice votes. It was passed after division of votes -- 288 in favour and 232 against. The Bill will now come up in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
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