Rhawn Joseph, a Californian man who refers to himself as an astrobiologist, claims that the "mysterious rock" found in Mars' surface is actually a growing organism. He is now suing NASA for failing to investigate the matter further.
The petition, which was filed in the U.S District Court of Northern California, was submitted on Jan.27. In the petition, Joseph detailed that NASA should investigate the "mysterious rock" further and the agency should "scientifically examine and investigate a putative biological organism." According to him, the agency's refusal to take close up pictures of the rock at different angles, to gather microscopic samples and images of the rock, and declining to publicize high-resolution of photos of the specimen are decisions considered as "recklessly negligent and bizarre".
"Any intelligent adult, adolescent, child, chimpanzee, monkey, dog or rodent with even a modicum of curiosity would approach, investigate and closely examine a bowl-shaped structure which appears just a few feet in front of them when 12 days earlier they hadn't noticed it," Joseph stated in his petition. "But not NASA and its rover team who have refused to take even a single close-up photo."
Joseph has already published an article in Cosmology.com about the matter. The picture taken during Sol 3528 clearly showed the outline of a small-bowl shaped growth along the rock's outcropping. Subsequently, in the pictures captured during Sol 3540 (12 days later), the small bowl-shaped growth has become "fully grown bowl-shaped organism resembling Apothecia (a mixture of fungus and cyanobacteria)".
The rock in question is the "mysterious rock" that a rover in Mars found recently. It has gathered a lot of attention from the public because in the initial pictures sent by the Rover, the rock wasn't there. However, 12 days later, the rock mysteriously appeared in front of the rover. NASA concluded that the rover's movement may have thrown the rock in its current position or it may have been there due to a recent meteorite impact on the planet's surface. Joseph is challenging this conclusion as illogical because according to him, there was no sign of any impact that could've placed the rock in its current position.
Joseph's petition also requires NASA that if the rock is indeed a biological organism, the agency should acknowledge him as the one who made the discovery.
