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I just checked, and there are no Italian restaurants on Mars. So there goes one explanation for an photographed by Perseverance rover on Tuesday. It isn’t spaghetti. Nor is it a sea creature or a hair ball. It looks like a tangle of string or shredded material that’s clinging together.
This image from July 12, 2022, puts the spaghetti-shaped object (circled in red) in perspective with the rover’s wheel and the end of its robotic arm. It looks like a good-size forkful.
NASA/JPL-Caltech; red circle by Amanda Kooser/CNET
The image comes from one of the rover’s front-facing hazard avoidance cameras that keep an eye on the landscape to protect Percy when it’s driving or https://www.spacelaunchreport.com/ using its robotic arm.
The most likely explanation for the tangle of material is debris from the mission. Perseverance has caught sight of its landing equipment leftovers from near and . Notably, back in June the rover spotted a wedged against a rock.
The rover’s arrival on Mars in February 2021 was quite a dramatic event. The descent stage safely delivered the wheeled laboratory to the surface and then skedaddled away to crash at a distance. , and you can see how bits and bobs of gear might’ve gotten spread across a wide area of the landscape.