A party hat-shaped object spotted on Mars is drawing renewed scrutiny, with some experts suggesting it could be evidence of something major while others offered a trashy explanation for the cone.<\/p>\n
The object \u2014 roughly 20 centimeters long with a flat end \u2014 was first photographed by NASA\u2019s Curiosity Rover in 2022 in Gale Crater near the Red Planet\u2019s equator, and flagged on March 8 by Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Loeb in a post on Medium.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould we just assume that the mysterious cylinder is human-made debris and move on or turn back the rover to figure out whether its origin is different?\u201d Loeb asked in a Medium post.<\/p>\n
The object appears to be manmade but has yet to be classified by NASA, which first took these photos in 2022. Mars analyst notebook,NASA<\/p>\n
Loeb urged NASA to dispatch the small SUV-sized Curiosity Rover, currently on the slopes of Mars\u2019 Mount Sharp, to investigate the object, which was about 5 miles away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most likely explanation is that it corresponds to human-made debris,\u201d Loeb wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, NASA should prioritize going back to examine the cylinder relative to the more mundane tasks of the Curiosity rover is pursuing,\u201d Loeb told The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cNASA is funded by the taxpayers and if we poll taxpayers they would likely agree with me that understanding the origin of the mysterious cylinder should be the top priority of Curiosity,\u201d Loeb concluded.<\/p>\n
The object was originally pulled from the trove of NASA photos by amateur Mars researcher Rami Bar Ilan and brought to Loeb\u2019s attention by Dr. Jan Spacek from the Florida-based Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution.<\/p>\n
NASA has not officially identified the object.<\/p>\n
Mars analyst notebook,NASA<\/p>\n
The highly geometric cone stands out in juxtaposition to the craggy surface of Mars. Mars analyst notebook,NASA<\/p>\n
The cone could in fact be part of the Curiosity mission itself, Loeb suggested, with the robot possibly shedding the hardware during its long-standing operation. <\/p>\n
The rover has been traversing that region since 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A party hat-shaped object spotted on Mars is drawing renewed scrutiny, with some experts suggesting it could be…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":655771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[6400,3091,916,159,783,23193,67,132,68,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-655770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-curiosity-rover","9":"tag-mars","10":"tag-nasa","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-space","13":"tag-space-program","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116229259003424145","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}