"This is one of the brightest and whitest things we've seen with the Mastcam at the Gale Crater site, " said Melissa Rice, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in Pasadena.

BBC: Curiosity breaks rock to reveal dazzling white interior

The report, by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), urges greater federal government investment in upgrading voting equipment and the creation of a new agency to oversee standards.

BBC: US election flaws 'cost 6m votes'

"We are delighted that the TMT project has now been granted a Conservation District Use Permit, " said Edward Stone, the Morrisroe Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and vice chair of the TMT board.

ENGADGET: Hawaii clears land use for the Thirty Meter Telescope, construction to start in 2014