No, the ‘alien figure’ in NASA Mars rover image is not proof of life – CNET [CNET]

NASA Mars rover images looking for fun shapes in the rocks is an enjoyable pastime, but it’s important to remember those fish and faces and posteriors are just cool chunks of the landscape. Sometimes, goofy rock sightings leak into wider media, as with recent news of an “alien” seen in an image snapped by NASA’s Perseverance rover. Some headlines are claiming the figure is “100% proof of intelligent life.”

Let’s break it down.

Scott Waring, who runs a UFO-focused site, highlighted a rover view with a flat rock with a shape on top of it, suggesting it was proof of life on the red planet. As a reminder, Mars is a horrifically inhospitable place and scientists haven’t even found proof of ancient microbial life there, though explorers like Perseverance are looking for evidence.

Waring spotted the rock in a panoramic image posted to Gigapan. I traced that back to the original raw images taken by Perseverance in April 2021. Waring sees an “alien figure,” a small person in a dark suit reclining and watching the rover. By zooming in to where it gets all fuzzy, I can see where that interpretation comes from.

Enlarge Image

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