Mars rover finds \'bright object\'

NASA\'s Curiosity rover has uncovered a \"bright object\" in the red soil of Mars that might be a part of the robotic explorer that broke off, the US space agency said. \"The rover team decided to refrain from using the rover\'s robotic arm on Oct. 8 due to the detection of a bright object on the ground that might be a piece from the rover,\" NASA said Monday in a statement. \"Curiosity is acquiring additional imaging of the object to aid the team in identifying the object and assessing possible impact, if any, to sampling activities.\" The rover had parked at a sand pit late last week, where it was to scoop up soil in order to clean and test its geological sampling hardware. Curiosity is on a two-year mission to explore the Red Planet and learn whether conditions there might have been able to support life in the past. The $2.5 billion craft landed in Gale Crater on August 6, opening a new chapter in the history of interplanetary exploration.