Did NASA find life on Mars in 2013? Curiosity photo of a 'mushroom' raises suspicion

The Curiosity Rover has spotted a mushroom on Mars, leading some alien enthusiasts to proclaim that we have found "life" on the red planet. The rover took a photo on the Martian surface, which shows an object similar to a mushroom. It is not a new discovery, as the rover took the image in 2013. It went into the archives and has now been found by UFO hunter Scott Waring.

The object appears to have a stem like a regular mushroom with a canopy on top. Waring says he is "not sure how or why NASA could overlook such a thing," since NASA has been trying to "find life on other planets and moons."

Waring says the space agency should have used the expensive equipment on board Curiosity to examine the structure. After finding the photo, he strongly believes that a mushroom "pushed up out of the Mars dirt."

"NASA should have poked it, bumped it, knocked it over, cut it open with their tools on the Curiosity rover," Waring said.

People think NASA is not telling everything

People are also questioning the reason for NASA ignoring this image, while some simply think that the space agency is keeping secrets from the public.

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A user wrote on social media, "Looks like a mushroom to me! NASA know far more about MARS than they let on."

Curiosity was launched in 2011 and landed on Aeolis Palus inside Gale crater in 2012. Its primary purpose is to hunt for evidence that life once existed on Mars. So why didn't NASA pursue this Martian "mushroom."

For one, scientists do not think it is a mushroom, but merely two rocks placed on top of one another. Besides, the conditions on Mars mean that no form of life can currently thrive on the surface of the red planet.

Possible explanations for mushroom on Mars?

Dr Gareth Dorrian, a planetary physicist from the University of Birmingham, told MailOnline that the mushroom could be a geological formation from billions of years ago when liquid water flowed on Mars.

It could also be two rocks, with the top one having gradually settled onto the bottom one as the wind blows away the sand and dust.

Besides, the current conditions on Mars are just not ripe to support life. Dorrian points out that the atmospheric pressure at the Martian surface is extremely thin. This allows ultraviolet and particle radiation to constantly bombard the planet. The radiation is known to damage complex molecules like DNA.

The temperatures on Mars range from 20°C during the day to -100°C at night. Dorrian says, "No known forms of life can simultaneously tolerate these extremes of temperatures, radiation levels, and low atmospheric pressure."