A panorama of Mars captured by NASA's Spirit rover in 2007 has resurfaced online, with viewers convinced it shows a human-like figure walking across the Red Planet. The shape, nestled among rocks, appears to have its arms outstretched and one leg forward, as if caught mid-stride.
The eerie form appeared in a sweeping panorama of the Martian hills taken during the later years of Spirit's mission. The rover became trapped in soft sand in 2009 and eventually lost power, prompting NASA to declare its mission over in 2011.
While some viewers suggested the object was a walking man, others proposed it was a "statue of someone kneeling with one hand out." Many acknowledged the figure is likely nothing more than a strangely shaped rock, though some argued no similar formations appeared nearby.
"This looks to be a combination of rocks or shapes in the surface along with shadowing," one Reddit user wrote. "You can even find other odd shapes in the photo that don't appear natural. It would be cool if this were some sort of alien artifact, but if that were the case, I highly doubt NASA and the government would release the photo."
NASA has maintained it has no evidence of extraterrestrial life and has yet to find any signs of current or past life on Mars. Regardless, viewers have proposed their own theories about the image.
"That could be a statue. It's sitting, not walking. Past life on Mars, Absolutely Yes," one Reddit user wrote. Another commented, "It's obviously a person or a statue of one!!! I don't care what NASA says."
The Planetary Society published a blog post addressing the sighting, calling it nothing more than an optical illusion. The organization said pretty much any person would see a humanoid shape in the photo, describing it as a case of pareidolia, the human propensity to see patterns in random shapes.
Second Mars photo fuels 'alien missile' claims
Another mysterious Mars photo was published online earlier this month, with people claiming it showed an unexploded "alien missile" lying on the Martian surface. UFO researcher Scott C. Waring shared the photo, taken by the Curiosity rover, on his site, arguing the object is evidence of an ancient conflict that wiped out a once-thriving civilization. Waring claimed space agencies have remained silent about the object because of its potential military significance.
Waring speculated the object could represent advanced extraterrestrial weapon technology that governments would rush to obtain if it were ever recovered. He estimated the object measures just over eight feet long and wondered who might reach it first and what purpose it may have served.
NASA has not identified the object as anything other than part of the Martian landscape and has offered no indication it is anything but a naturally occurring rock formation. Scientists have long noted that Mars has been shaped by billions of years of volcanic activity, meteorite impacts and wind erosion, processes capable of sculpting rocks into surprisingly artificial-looking shapes.
Similar discoveries have repeatedly sparked claims of alien artifacts on Mars before later being explained as examples of pareidolia. Waring offered no evidence to support his claims about the object.
