From eerie doorways to a floating spoon – six mysterious sightings on Mars revealed
NASA has been exploring Mars from afar for decades and over time all sorts of odd and unexpected sightings have been made.
Today, the space agency is still looking for possible signs of alien life on the mysterious Red Planet.
And plans are being made to finally put boots of astronauts on Mars as early as the 2030s.
The Mariner 4 flyby bot made history in 1965 taking the first photos of another planet from space.
Since then, technology has evolved massively and rovers have been roaming on the surface of Mars and sending back important data hundreds of millions of miles away – and high quality photos.
We’ve gathered some of objects and more spotted on the Red Planet over the years…
The mysterious “doorway”
The internet went into frenzy in May 2022 after spotting what looked like a doorway on Mars’ surface.
It led to all sorts of wild theories, including that it might be home to aliens – or even a secret extra-terrestrial temple.
However, experts quickly came out to dismiss the idea revealing that what appears to be a door is more likely natural erosion of the rocks.
A “crashed UFO”
It was hard to miss this apparent wreckage spotted by Nasa.
You would be forgiven for thinking it was debris from a crashed UFO with the saucer-like shape.
Instead, the source was a bit closer to home – Nasa itself.
The debris is part of the parachute and backshell used to safely land the Ingenuity Mars helicopter onto the planet in February 2021.
The “floating spoon”
Another apparent object on the surface of Mars to catch people’s attention was what looked like a spoon.
But to make matters even more eerie, it seemed as through the Earth-like cutlery was floating too.
Alas, it was once again an optical illusion created by the shape of the rocks and angle the photo was taken.
The “spaghetti monster“
A strange spaghetti-like object left scientists baffled in 2022.
Nasa came out to reveal that it was actually netting.
However, netting is not something you expect to stumble across on Mars.
Nasa’s hardware team believe it’s from the Perseverance rover’s landing on the Red Planet in February 2021.
“This particular piece of netting appears to have undergone significant unraveling/shredding, suggesting that it was subjected to strong forces,” Nasa said.
The “statue”
Another shot from Mars convinced conspiracy theories that there was a statue of a woman made by aliens.
Once again, it was nothing more than rock.
The “cylinder”
A strange cylinder-like piece was captured in a shot taken by Nasa’s Perseverance rover which some believed might be an artefact belonging to an ancient civilisation.
It turned out the intriguing item actually belongs to Nasa.
The piece is a so-called “launch abrasion bit”.
Mars facts
Here's what you need to know about the Red Planet...
- Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun
- It is named after the Roman god of war
- The landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth but due to the difference in gravity you could jump three times higher there than you can here
- Mars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than Everest
- Mars is considered to be the second most habitable planet after Earth
- It takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun
- So far, there has been 39 missions to Mars but only 16 of these have been successful