A resurfaced photo taken by NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars is fueling claims online that the Red Planet was once the site of an alien war.
UFO researcher Scott C Waring shared the image, saying it shows what he believes is an unexploded 'alien missile' lying on the Martian surface. He argued the object is evidence of an ancient conflict that wiped out a once-thriving civilization, claiming space agencies have stayed silent 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. NASA has not backed the claims and has offered no indication that the object is anything other than 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 that can sculpt rocks into shapes that look artificial. Similar discoveries have repeatedly sparked claims of alien artifacts on Mars before later being explained as pareidolia, the human tendency to see familiar patterns where none exist.
The shape has reignited debate online, with some convinced Curiosity found the remnants of an extraterrestrial battlefield and others seeing little more than another Martian rock. NASA has maintained it has no evidence of extraterrestrial life and has yet to find signs of current or past life on Mars.
Waring estimated the object measures just over eight feet long and speculated it could be an intact piece of extraterrestrial technology. He claimed such a discovery would be highly sought after by governments hoping to study advanced weapons, and wondered who might reach it first and what purpose it may have served.
Waring offered no evidence for the claims. Others who saw the image suggested the object could be a crashed extraterrestrial ship rather than a missile.
Another Facebook user who shared the image said the object appears long and narrow, with two compartments, one that looked empty and one that seemed to contain what they called "packages." The user speculated that what appeared to be wings may have broken off in a crash, concluding it was "most likely" some type of aircraft.
Another user commented: "Would be cool if it actually was a crashed ship?"
Earlier claim of a Martian 'dwelling'
Earlier this month, Waring shared another Mars photo he claimed showed a dwelling on the Red Planet. The image came from a panorama taken by Curiosity last month inside Gale Crater, the 96-mile-wide impact basin that has been the rover's home since it landed on Mars in 2012.
Some pointed to a formation in the distance that they said resembles a structure with a doorway, similar to an early human dwelling. Waring said: "What looks like cut boulders is actually clay-type walls and an entrance way made by intelligent beings who needed protection from the elements. We had them on Earth long ago, and they had them on Mars long ago."
NASA has not commented on the latest claims, but the agency previously addressed similar speculation after Curiosity photographed a door-like feature in 2022.
At the time, NASA said the mound, on Mount Sharp, has a number of naturally occurring open fractures, including one roughly 12 inches tall and 16 inches wide, similar in size to a dog door. NASA said these kinds of open fractures are common in bedrock, both on Earth and on Mars.
Not everyone agrees with Waring's interpretation. One X user commented on his post: "Nah, just a rock formation. I definitely think it's possible that entrances could be there, but this just looks like a shadow."
Waring responded: "Chances of intelligent beings creating this structure... 100 percent."
Curiosity is a car-sized, nuclear-powered robot searching for signs of life and learning about the Red Planet's environment.
