String theory: NASA Mars rover discovers mystery object
Technology
A tangled object discovered by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover has intrigued space watchers
WASHINGTON, July 21, 2022 (AFP) - Is it tumbleweed? A piece of fishing line? Spaghetti?
A tangled object discovered by NASA s Mars Perseverance rover has intrigued space watchers, leaving some musing tongue-in-cheek about the quality of Italian dining on the Red Planet.
But the most plausible explanation is more prosaic: it s likely remnants of a component used to lower the robotic explorer to the Martian surface in February 2021.
"We have been discussing where it s from, but there s been speculation that it s a piece of cord from the parachute or from the landing system that lowers the rover to the ground," a spokesman for NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory told AFP.
"Note that we don t have confirmation that it s one or the other," he added.
The bundle of debris was first spotted July 12 by the rover s front left hazard avoidance camera -- but when Perseverance returned to the same spot four days later, it was gone.
It was probably carried away by wind, like a piece of a thermal blanket that might have come from the rocket-powered landing system, which was spotted last month.
The accumulating trash left behind by Perseverance is considered a small price to pay for the rover s noble scientific goals of searching for biosignatures of ancient microbial life forms.
And these items may one day become valuable artifacts for future Mars colonists.
"In a hundred years or so Martians will be eagerly collecting up all this stuff and either putting it on display in museums or making it into historical jewelry, " tweeted amateur astronomer Stuart Atkinson.
