NASA's Perseverance rover spots strange object on Mars; here's what it could be

After spotting a tin foil sandwiched between rocks on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover has now come across another object. While its identity could not be independently verified, it appears like an entangled wire lying on the red planet’s surface. The object was photographed last week using the rover’s Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera A fitted onboard.

According to the mission team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the picture was taken on July 12, 2022, which was the Perseverance rover's 495th day on Mars. As for the object's origin, NASA did not clarify what it is, however, it could have been a part of Perseverance's equipment which was used during the rover's landing last year.

Notably, the aforementioned tin foil, which was found lying near Perseverance's landing site at the Jezero Crater, emerged from one of the equipments used during landing, a thermal blanket to be precise.

Are humans littering Mars too?

The discovery of Perseverance's hardware used in February 2021 to ensure its touchdown on Mars raised concerns and questions about humans littering an alien planet before even visiting. Apart from part of the thermal blanket, a few more debris were spotted in the past, thanks to the Ingenuity helicopter. The debris was also from the entry, descent and landing hardware which included a parachute and cone-shaped component called backshell.

Talking about the contamination of Mars with objects from Earth, Andrew Coates, a space scientist at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory told The Guardian, "The good news is that everything is sterilised before it goes to Mars, and the space radiation environment helps during the nine-month trip to Mars as does the harsh surface environment."

He further said that the landing gear, which does produce debris, is important for making a robot land on Mars but emphasised that the contamination risk is very low. 

Notably, there is the 1967 Outer Space Treaty which enforces the avoidance of contamination of outer space and celestial bodies such as the Moon. But according to the Guardian, many believe that the law must be detailed enough to actually work.