Mars Rover Photo Shows ‘Human Shadow,’ Or Maybe It Doesn’t
From rats to skulls to a disappearing doughnut, so-called “ufologists” claim to have seen all sorts of strange things in photos taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover.
Now they’re saying that a rover photo taken in 2012 (see below) shows the shadow of a human or human-like alien “messing with” the rover.
“The person has no helmet and their short hair is visible and in high detail,” Taiwan-based ufologist Scott Waring wrote in a post on his blog UFO Sightings Daily. “The person has on air tanks on their back and a suit that covers most of the body except the hair.”
Waring goes on to wonder if the image indicates that the rover isn’t on Mars at all but right here on Earth–or that humanoid aliens live on the Red Planet.
Of course, there’s always the (more likely) possibility that the shadow only looks like that of a human form. It makes sense that our brains would interpret the image this way. Humans are wired to spot patterns and even faces in images–it’s a phenomenon called pareidolia.
Here’s the same shadow from a slightly different angle taken about 28 seconds later. Yes, it still looks vaguely like a person. But if it is, “he or she” managed to keep perfectly still, because the figure hasn’t budged even slightly.
Our verdict? It’s just the rover’s own shadow.