PASADENA (CBS Tampa) – UFO watchers are going gaga over a new photo from the surface of Mars.
NASA’s Curiosity rover sent back a series of photos, one of which shows an apparent spot of light on the horizon.
Conspiracy theorists say the light source is artificial, meaning that it must be made by some form of intelligent life.
The image is from a stereoscopic image of Mars, scientists point out the flash is spotted in one lens but not the other.
But Doug Ellison with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory took to Twitter to debunk the speculation.
“It’s a cosmic ray hit,” he wrote. Cosmic rays come from the sun and are easily absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere.
But on Mars they are more likely to reach the surface.
It could also be a glint of sunshine off a rock, say astronomers.
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