Таємнича "медуза" на Марсі зафіксована на знімку NASA: що це виявилося

A peculiar dark silhouette with “tentacles” appeared in a NASA photograph of Mars.

"Jellyfish" on Mars. Photo: NASA/JPL Caltech — A “jellyfish” on Mars. Photo: NASA/JPL Caltech

NASA’s Curiosity rover captured an unusual dark object in one of its Mars images, resembling a jellyfish with dangling tentacles. However, photographs of the same location taken just seconds prior show no such object on the planet’s surface.

This was reported by the publication Science Alert.

Curiosity took the snapshot on August 20, 2023, at 22:27:46 UTC. In the left portion of the Martian landscape photo, a dark silhouette akin to a jellyfish is visible. Simultaneously, the rover photographed the identical area with the same instrument 13 and 25 seconds before the unusual silhouette appeared. It was absent in both preceding frames.

The two preceding frames, taken a few seconds apart. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

One plausible explanation for the strange silhouette’s appearance is the impact of a cosmic ray. This refers to a high-energy charged particle that might have struck Curiosity’s navigation camera’s silicon detector, leaving a trace on the image.

Mars offers significantly less protection from cosmic radiation compared to Earth. The planet lacks a global magnetic field, and its atmosphere’s mass is only about 0.5% of Earth’s. Consequently, artifacts related to cosmic rays have been repeatedly recorded in Curiosity’s images.

These can manifest as bright dots, spots, or streaks in photographs. Furthermore, the color of such traces can vary. For instance, in a 2023 Curiosity video, NASA explained a small black artifact in a frame as precisely a cosmic ray hitting the camera sensor.

As far back as 2014, Justin Maki, an imaging specialist and systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, noted that among the thousands of photos taken by Curiosity, frames with similar bright spots emerge almost weekly.

However, without conclusive findings from the Curiosity team, it is currently impossible to definitively establish what caused the appearance of the mysterious “jellyfish.” Other peculiarities in the camera’s operation or image processing could also be the cause. Crucially, the silhouette is visible in only one frame. This almost certainly indicates its appearance is linked to the camera itself, rather than a real object on the Martian surface.

As a reminder, previously, entomologist William Romoser identified shapes resembling winged insects and reptiles in Mars photographs taken by NASA rovers. He even interpreted some objects as “insects in flight.”