The "mars rat" has attracted a lot of attention on the Internet, but NASA is not as interested in the supposed extraterrestrial rodent, Space.com reported.
The "rat" was picked up in an image by the Curiosity rover, alien seekers believe it to be a rodent on Mars. Another theory is it was an Earthly rodent that was brought over on the Curiosity as an experiment.
"Clearly, it results from, you know, a lot of things like wind erosion and mechanical abrasion and breakdown chemical weathering of the rocks, as to why they get these weird shapes," said Curiosity deputy project scientist Joy Crisp, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
In a few weeks, the Curiosity will be moving far away from the "petrified rodent" to study a different area.
The rover will take a month-long drive to Mount Sharp, which will be its final journey. The mountain is 18,000 feet tall and towers over a 96 mile long crater, which is where the Curiosity originally landed, ExtremeTech.com reported.
After the rover finishes up a few more things in it's current area it will take a trip to study hydrogen abundance in two types of bedrock, and will also be looking at nearby outcrops Point Lake and Shaler, stated Space.com.
Crisp claims Curiosity scientists get a kick out of people seeing shapes and familiar creatures in Curiosity photos. Crisp claims seeing the mars rat can be blamed on a phenomenon called pareidolia, which causes people to see familiarities in random objects, such as shapes in the clouds.
Crisp doesn't think that falling prey to this phenomenon is necessarily a bad thing.
"It's fun in a way, too, in that it will attract a lot of the public to look at the images and learn a little bit about Mars by pulling them in this way," Crisp said.
WATCH:
