More of those weird ‘bubbles’ seen by Curiosity rover

"Bubble" feature from sol 309. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Cropped Mastcam image of “bubble” feature from sol 309. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

As Curiosity starts moving towards Mount Sharp again, a few more of those odd “bubble” features have been seen. The most obvious ones are oval-shaped, with raised rims, and appear to be a bit larger than some others seen previously. Like the others though, they sort of look like frothy bubbles which have “popped” and then hardened. How they formed is still a mystery which hopefully Curiosity can shed some more light on.

The one from sol 309 looks like a little circular wall with openings in places where it doesn’t touch the ground, making it appear rather fragile. There is also some light-coloured material inside it; is it the same stuff as the other light-coloured patches seen elsewhere?

As of right now there are still only lower-resolution Navcam and thumbnail Mastcam images of the one from sol 307, so some full-size Mastcam or MAHLI shots would be nice. They are an interesting feature, not seen by other rovers or landers before. The previously reported bubbles can be seen here, herehere and here.

Full-size Mastcam image from sol 309 with the "bubble" in the lower left corner. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Full-size Mastcam image from sol 309 with the “bubble” in the lower left corner.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Navcam image from sol 308 with another "bubble" feature close to one of the rover wheels. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Left Navcam image from sol 307 with another “bubble” feature close to one of the rover wheels. A second much smaller one is near the other wheel. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Mastcam image of same "bubble" as above, from sol 308. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Mastcam image of same “bubble” as above, from sol 308. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

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0 thoughts on “More of those weird ‘bubbles’ seen by Curiosity rover”

  1. Very interesting . Years ago no one would believe these discoveries to be true. Isn’t it astounding how far we have come re learning more about all of our entire Solar system !!

  2. The object in the last image looks like it could be a concretion. Interesting white bits in the center right.

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