NASA Spots a Bizarre 'Jellyfish' Floating on Mars. Here's What We Know. - ScienceAlert
NASA's Curiosity rover captured an image of a mysterious 'jellyfish' shape on the Martian surface, sparking speculation about alien life. Experts clarify that the smudge is likely a cosmic ray impact on the camera's sensor rather than a biological entity.
Why it matters
It demonstrates how space agencies use multiple imaging techniques to debunk anomalies and maintain scientific accuracy in planetary exploration.
Add ScienceAlert on Google Weird jellyfish? Or something weirder? (NASA/JPL Caltech) NASA rovers Curiosity and Perseverance have photographed some pretty strange objects on the surface of Mars .
From human-like heads and femur-like bones , to 'mushrooms' and suspiciously geometric structures , these objects are generally ultimately determined to be something Mars has in abundance. Yep, you got it – rocks.
In an image snapped by Curiosity in 2023 , and newly doing the is-there-life-on-Mars rounds , however, the explanation is a little more unusual.
On the far left of an otherwise normal picture of a Martian landscape is a strange dark shadow that looks a little like the silhouette of a jellyfish with tentacles dangling down – or, more appropriately, a Martian Tripod straight out of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds .
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