New Delhi, India

NASA has captured a mind-boggling image of Mars!

Advertisment

It shows a UFO-like object lying on Mars' surface. Is this a Martian automobile? Is this an intergalactic transit pod? What is it, exactly?

Firstly, we must accept that it would've been the coolest thing ever if it actually was a UFO or a piece of alien hardware. But no...the object in the picture is of human origins.

Also read | NASA reports a fireball that generated energy equivalent of 3 tonnes of TNT! Read more

Advertisment

It's a piece of a shattered spacecraft that NASA owns. The component you see in the picture is called 'backshell' that detached from the space agency's Perseverance rover in February 2021.

However, as NASA engineer Ian Clark put it, the images "exude otherworldly" vibes.

The photographs were shot by the Perseverance rover's robotic helicopter buddy, Ingenuity after it spent a year on Mars.

Advertisment

Watch | Expanding problem of space debris: What is space junk? Why is it a problem?

Last week, Ingenuity captured a set of ten photos during its 26th flight, and these are some of them.

Ingenuity

Image courtesy: NASA JPL/Twitter

Both the backshell and the parachute that aided Perseverance and Ingenuity's descent to Mars can be seen in the pictures.

Also read | Revisiting prehistoric era: Fossils of 3 ichthyosaurs including giant tooth found in Swiss Alps, says study

This isn't just space waste, according to the New York Times, analysing the remains of this backshell could be useful for NASA's next trip to Mars, which has been dubbed Mars Sample Return.

Two landers will be placed on the planet's surface, as well as a rover that will gather space rock, i.e., rock samples that are drilled Perseverance, and a rocket that will launch these samples into orbit so that they can be returned to Earth.

Watch WION LIVE HERE:

(With inputs from agencies)