Space & Astronomy

Mysterious light shows up in Mars photograph

By T.K. Randall
June 21, 2019

Image: Curiosity Rover
Credit: (PD) NASA/JPL-Caltech via Wikimedia Commons The long-lived rover has certainly encountered its fair share of mysteries during its time trundling across the Martian surface and this latest enigma is no exception.

While conspiracy theorists have been quick to suggest that the anomalous light could be evidence of intelligent life on Mars, the actual explanation is likely to be a lot more mundane.

According to Curiosity's navcam operator Justin Maki, such anomalies are in fact nothing new."In the thousands of images we've received from Curiosity, we see ones with bright spots nearly every week," he said.

"These can be caused by cosmic-ray hits or sunlight glinting from rock surfaces, as the most likely explanations."

Exactly which of these possibilities accounts for this particular example however remains unclear.

Source: Independent

Tags: Mars