Humans have managed to leave debris on Mars, even though they have never set foot on the planet.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover has spotted an unexpected piece of rubbish on the red planet, a shiny object sandwiched between two pieces of rock, according to a report from the space agency on Wednesday.
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In a series of Twitter posts, the Perseverance team said they had noticed what was believed to be a piece of thermal blanket that was used to protect the rover from extreme temperatures during its landing.
My team noticed something unexpected: this is a piece of thermal blanket that they think may have come from my descent stage, the rocket-powered jet pack that took me down on the day of landing in 2021. pic.twitter.com/O4rIaEABLu
– NASA’s Perseverance rover (@NASAPersevere) June 15, 2022
“It’s surprising to find this out here: My landing stage crashed about 2 km. Did this piece land here after that, or was it blown away by the wind? ”Read a subsequent post.
This shiny piece of foil is part of a thermal blanket – a material used to control temperatures. It is surprising to find this here: My descent stage broke about 2 km. Did this piece land here after that, or was it blown away by the wind? pic.twitter.com/uVx3VdYfi8
– NASA’s Perseverance rover (@NASAPersevere) June 15, 2022
The rover has been on a mission since landing on Mars in February 2021, exploring the planet’s Jezero crater for signs of life.
However, this is not the first time human space debris has been spotted on the surface of Mars. In April, the Ingenuity helicopter took an aerial view of the landing gear left behind by Perseverance, Business Insider reported.
The parachute and conical shell of the rover Perseverance, captured by NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on April 19, 2022.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
The rovers have recently slowed down, returning images to unusual and intriguing Martian terrain for scientists to reflect on.
On Sunday, June 12, the rover Perseverance returned images of a rock formation that looked very much like a snake’s head, as well as an uncertain rock formation that showed a stone perched on top of a rock slab.
NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance took this photo of a balancing rock and a snake-headed rock on June 12, 2022, using its Mastcam-Z camera.
NASA
And last month, Curiosity Rover shared photos of what looked like a door huddled in a rock wall, which made willing astronomers enraged at what might be behind the perfectly formed void.
This image, provided by NASA, was taken from the mast camera aboard NASA’s Curiosity rover at Sol 3466, May 7, 2022.
NASA
However, NASA officials and a Mars expert from Harvard University said the curious formation was nothing more than a narrow, naturally occurring crack in the rocky, barren terrain.
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Andrew Good, a spokesman for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, told the Associated Press that the image was a “very, very, very enlarged shot” of a naturally occurring rock fissure.
In fact, Goode said that NASA scientists observing the rover estimated that the opening was only about 30 centimeters high and 40 centimeters wide, or about the size of an average dog’s neck.
– with files from the Associated Press
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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