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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, spacelaunchreport.com 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 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.