NASA’s Perseverance Rover Found Strange Spaghetti-Like Object On Mars; Find Out What It Is

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has identified the strange spaghetti-like object that was found on the surface of Mars.

The mysterious substance was captured in a photograph that was taken by the space agency's Perseverance rover. It had landed inside the planet's Jezero Crater in 2021. The image was first seen by the car-sized rover on July 12, and it sparked wild theories about potential life on Mars, reported Mirror.

NASA scientist Justin Maki wrote in a Mars blog that it should be noted that "discarded debris are common in space missions." NASA went on to confirm that the strange object is actually a shredded piece of Dacron netting. It concluded that the Dacron, which is a part of the polyester family, is likely to have come from a thermal blanket. It is used in the rover's descent stage.

In the blog it was said that the particular piece of netting "appears to have undergone significant unravelling or shredding, suggesting that it was subjected to strong forces."

An unavoidable consequence of making a soft landing on the planet is detritus from the rover's entry, descent and landing (EDL) equipment. But it can be a challenge for the those who are working on the Perseverance mission.

The rover is on Mars to drill for soil and rock samples. They will be collected and brought back to Earth in the 2030s. The samples' analysis could determine whether there is or ever was life on the Red Planet.

Before launch, NASA sterilized Perseverance to avoid contaminating Mars with any Earth microbes. But the rover's team will need to use its cameras to try and ensure that no materials from the EDL get into the samples collected from Mars.

In February, the Mars Perseverance rover completed its year anniversary on the foreign planet. On Feb. 18, 2021, the spacecraft carrying NASA's robotic explorer named Perseverance, worth $2.7 billion, placed the rover gently on Mars. It marked NASA's most thorough and enthusiastic effort in decades to study if there was ever life on Mars.

NASA said last week that Perseverance has so far collected 12 samples from the Red Planet, according to AS.