By Tim Binnall
A recent photo taken by NASA's Perseverance rover features a peculiar object that some might mistake for evidence of an ancient alien civilization, but it turns out that the odd 'anomaly' actually has an earthly origin. The instructive snapshot was reportedly taken earlier this month as the exploratory vehicle was overlooking the seemingly barren surface of the Red Planet. However, in the photo, a curious cylindrical object can be seen near what appear to be tracks left behind by the rover.
More often than not such an unnatural looking object would pique the interest of anomaly hunters scouring NASA images for signs that the Red Planet once hosted an advanced race of Martian beings. However, in this instance the mystery surrounding the puzzling specimen was quickly solved, as fastidious UFO researcher Scott Brando was able to preemptively put those theories to rest by connecting the oddity to an instance over the summer wherein the rover discarded the object on the surface of the planet.
At the time, the Perseverance rover Twitter account noted that it was jettisoning the piece in favor of "new, pristine drill bits" in order to "keep my science clean and clear." The account went on to joke that it had created a "Martian art installation" by way of the discarded drill bit, though not everyone was amused by the out-of-this-world littering. The object subsequently sat there for months until it was spotted again by the rover last week and it wound up the centerpiece of the image in question.
While we may know the origin of the object now, one can imagine that anomaly hunters in the distant future may someday find the piece in the photo and declare that it is definitive proof that some intelligent species once roamed the Red Planet. Of course, in this case they would be correct, which perhaps should give us pause before dismissing the next shoe or handgun spotted on Mars as merely being a product of pareidolia.