SERAMBINEWS.COM – A NASA rover has found a shiny metal object on the planet Mars.
But what looked like silver trash actually came from Perseverance’s own landing gear.
Amid some excitement among conspiracy theorists, mystery shrouds why the debris was found in that part of the Red Planet.
Experts at NASA found what they think is a ‘thermal blanket’ 2km from where the descent occurred – and have speculated about whether it could have been blown off by the wind there.
The material looks a little wrinkled, with some black dotted marks and lies on the stone.
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In a tweet announcing the discovery, Rover himself said yesterday: “My team has seen something unexpected: This is a piece of thermal blanket they think may have come from my descending stage, a rocket-powered jet pack.
“That piece of glossy foil is part of a thermal blanket – a material used to control temperature. What a surprise to find this here: My descent stage fell about 2km away. Did this piece land here after that, or was it blown here?”
Perseverance aims to find signs of life in the past, even if it’s in now-extinct microbes.
It will also take rock and soil samples in preparation for future human exploration.
The latest discovery comes after images of Mars from the Curiosity Rover emerged to show a ‘secret door’ – but many are unsure, suggesting it is just a crack in Martian rock.
A month earlier NASA posted an image of a Martian crater that looks like a strange footprint, but is actually a major geographical landmark.
In its latest post, the US space agency also described what appears to be the same material used at the event on Earth.
The tweet continued: “This is part of the team at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) who wrapped me in a thermal blanket. Think of them as spacecraft tailors. They work with sewing machines and other tools to collect these unique materials.”
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlltn2KYbVk
