Martian Life? What NASA Rovers Captured So Far

Photos taken by NASA’s Mars rovers have always been considered by alien life theorists as “proof” or life in the red planet. All of them, however, are in reality nothing but rocks or non-living objects that looked like something else.

A report noted that the Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit have found some strange discoveries people thought to be signs of life, but really aren’t. Here’s a quick review of some of the “evidence” pointing to “Martian life.”

A meteorite

Opportunity spotted something NASA decided to call the “Heat Shield Rock.” This space rock the size of a basketball was made of iron and nickel, and was given the moniker as it was found near the rover’s heat shield.

A doughnut

Opportunity also sent the world into a frenzy after it took a photo that showed an object that resembled a sugary jelly-filled doughnut. Before alien life theorists could say Martians acquired a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise and sold doughnuts on Mars, NASA said it could simply be rocks displaced by Opportunity’s movements in the area.

Some blueberries

A few months after it arrived in Mars, Opportunity took a photo that showed an odd-looking patch of rocks located near its landing spot. Although these rocks were dubbed “blueberries,” no one could ever hope to put them in a pie simply because they’re just rocks arranged in a weird formation that indicated Mars’ possibly watery past.

A rabbit

In 2004, Opportunity took a photo that showed something that resembled a rabbit, complete with long ears. While people went nuts over the possibility that a small mammal from the Leporidae family actually lives in the red planet, NASA simply dismissed it as a soft material that could’ve come from the rover itself.

A human

At one time, the rover Spirit sent a photo of what appears to be a human sitting on a boulder with one arm raised and pointing forward. Upon closer inspection, however, it turned out that there was no human sitting on a rock -- because it was just a huge rock.

Another finding?

Alien life enthusiast Scott Waring claims NASA also snapped a photo showing a monkey sitting somewhere in the red planet. In an entry on the ET Database, he said “maybe NASA brought the monkey to experiment on it in the Martian environment.”

If the “proofs of alien life” mentioned above are any indication, however, it’s likely that this “monkey” is nothing but another rock that looks like an ape.