Rat on Mars?

A photo taken on Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover is causing quite a stir because some see in it a Martian rat.

Mike Wall reports for SPACE.com, May 31, 2013, that UFO buffs spotted the purported “Mars rat” in a panoramic photo snapped in September 2012 by NASA’s Curiosity rover. Zooming in on a portion of the image reveals what appears to be a rodent crouching between two rocks, its nose to the ground.

Scott Waring wrote at UFO Sightings Daily: “It’s a cute rodent on Mars. Note its lighter-color upper and lower eyelids, its nose and cheek areas, its ear, its front leg and stomach. Looks similar to a squirrel camouflaged in the stones and sand by its colors.”

In an update to what he wrote last December, Waring even raised the possibility that NASA flew the rat to Mars secretly, as part of an experiment testing out the Red Planet’s ability to support life as we know it. “Why would they not tell us about it?” Waring wrote. “Because the squirrel would be expected to die eventually and that would get PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] to fight against them in a court of law.”

The Mars rat has now gone viral, jumping from the pages of UFO Sightings Daily to more mainstream publications such as Discovery News, Fox News, and SPACE.com.

The rodent has even picked up its own Twitter account, @RealMarsRat. Just 49 people were following the rat as of Friday afternoon (May 31), but that’s still pretty good for a rodent.

Here’s the pic on Yahoo:

Hmm. That thing between the two rocks does look sorta like a rodent.

I enlarged the “rodent”:

Scientists say it’s highly unlikely that a rat, squirrel, lizard or any other organism could survive on the cold, dry Martian surface today, although the Red Planet may still be able to support microbial life in select underground pockets. They say the Martian rat is actually an example of a psychological phenomenon called pareidolia — the tendency of the human brain to perceive animals or other familiar shapes in vague or random images.

What do you think? LOL

Rats on Mars is nothing. I’m still waiting for a follow-up on that Wired magazine article about the two DARPA (DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) scientists who claimed a teenage Obama had teleported to and back from Mars in a secret CIA project in the early 1980s. (See “Obama went to Mars?!,” Jan. 11, 2o12.)

Now that’s the real rat on Mars.

H/t FOTM’s igor

~Eowyn