A mysterious object has been discovered on the surface of Mars – NASA with a surprising explanation

A mysterious cylinder can be seen in an image taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars. But what does that mean?

Pasadena – Anyone who often looks at the original images that NASA’s Mars rover and Curiosity send back to Earth is already familiar with the sometimes-observable UFOs on the Red Planet’s surface. A “frog” has already been discovered on Mars, things that look like “partially buried skeletons” or strange markings on the surface of the Red Planet.

A recent image taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover on February 16, 2022 is currently astounding Mars fans. A small cylinder-shaped object is visible in the image, showing a view of the rusty and dusty red surface of Mars. But what is it? When strange things are discovered on Mars, there is usually a phenomenon called pareidolia, a type of hallucination. Pareidolia is a kind of “auto-completion” in the brain, it allows people to learn about known things in the unknown. This phenomenon could likely explain the supposed “frog” on Mars, as well as the “partially buried skeletons”, which were just notable rock formations.

A mysterious object has been discovered on Mars: NASA clarifies

But could this also explain the cylinder on Mars? The object does not appear to belong to Mars and appears to be man-made. However, it is not a direct legacy of the inhabitants of Mars, like NASA Clarified some time ago on Twitter: The mysterious cylinder is a piece left over from NASA’s Perseverance spacecraft. More precisely: it’s an abrasive drill that the rover uses to grind some Martian rock so it can then look under the surface.

Strange cylinder on Mars: NASA’s ‘perseverance’ rover provides an explanation

In total, “Perseverance” has ten different exercises with it. However, the drill installed in the proper location for the rover when it flew to Mars only served to protect what was inside during the flight. Once on Mars, this drill was not used to avoid accidentally contaminating samples collected by the rover with terrestrial material. Instead, the drill was left on the surface of Mars – and photographed by NASA’s rover about a year after it landed.

A mysterious object on Mars captivates people’s imagination

But things that have no place on Mars awaken the imagination of people who see images of them – and so in the case of the cylinder from which the “perseverance” of the Red Planet was “done” there were all kinds of speculations and jokes. There is joking talk of a “rusty, fallen exhaust,” and others suspect it is a sample container in which NASA’s spacecraft collects rock samples from Mars. One user complains, “They’ve now started polluting Mars too.”

NASA’s “Perseverance” rover landed on the Red Planet in February 2021 and has already helped search for many important findings with its data. Among other things, researchers now know that the probe has already landed in a dry lake on Mars. In addition, Perseverance explained how stones form in their environment. (tab)