NASA Announces Strange Object on Mars: Contains Alien Life?

In the latest image released by NASA, a tube-shaped object is lying on the typical red soil of Mars. It is a priceless Christmas gift that they can only open after 2030.

Space magazine quoted NASA's statement that the "strange object" lying around in an area called "South Seítah" will bring a "pivotal moment in the search for life on Mars".

Strange object that Perseverance just left on the ground of Mars - (Photo: JPL/NASA)

The strange object was actually a tube containing Martian rock and soil samples that had just been left on the ground by the Perseverance lander, a robotic rover.

With the 'calm' weather on the red planet, the tube will be safe until Perseverance or two helicopters (like the Ingenuity Mars mission that ended just over a month ago) take it to Jezero Crater, where a NASA spacecraft will wait to transport it back to Earth. This sample transfer mission is expected to take place in the 2030s.

Perseverance actually collects up to two tubes of such material at each location. It carries one tube with it and leaves one on the ground as a backup. NASA's robot is expected to collect samples at 10 locations across a vast area called the 'Three Forks,' an ancient glacial plain of which the 'South Séítah' is one of the smaller areas.

The newly collected sample was taken from an igneous rock dubbed "Malay ." Before collecting the sample, NASA revealed that Perseverance's initial analysis had found organic matter in the same area, a component that could belong to life.

The special gift comes just days before Perseverance's primary mission ends on January 6, 2023, marking two years on Mars. But the rover shows no signs of damage, so it will continue to work. It also has a 'friend' elsewhere on Mars in the form of Curiosity, an older rover that arrived on Mars in 2012 and continues to operate reliably for years after its mission ended.