An unearthed NASA image of Mars has captured a strange object in the distance, which some have suggested was a jellyfish-like being or mechanical device.
NASA‘s Curiosity rover, which has been investigating whether Mars could have supported microbial life for the last 14 years, snapped the image on August 20, 2023 at around 6.27pm ET.
It shows the dusty Martian landscape with rocky hills and large mountains.
However, the panorama also revealed a small figure in the left corner that appeared to have a large black body perched atop two spindly legs.
Fueling speculation that NASA’s rover had captured something moving across Mars, images taken of the same area less than a minute earlier showed no sign of the mysterious figure.
Moreover, the photo with the object was the last image posted on NASA’s website for that day. The next picture from Curiosity was taken nearly two hours later with the camera pointed in a different direction.
In September 2025, NASA declared it had found the clearest signs of ancient microbial life on Mars in a sample collected by the Perseverance rover.
However, the space agency and White House have maintained that no signs of intelligent life have ever been found.
An image from NASA’s Curiosity rover captured a strange figure standing in the distance in 2023
The object was seen in Gale Crater and was not present in images taken seconds before
There were no other photos from August 20, 2023 posted by NASA that revealed if the object kept moving, approached the rover or if it was simply a glitch of the camera – which space officials refer to as an ‘artifact.’
The 2023 image was reposted on Wednesday by social media user Kari Sivertzen, a space enthusiast who regularly shares public NASA images that contain strange anomalies that cannot be easily explained.
Sivertzen said on X: ‘Sometimes I spot things that catch my eye, and I share them here. I believe there is life on other planets, and since NASA has found potential traces of life on Mars, it’s the perfect place to look.’
‘One of the best Mars UFO photographs I’ve seen!’ one person replied.
Independent Mars researcher Jean Ward said on X: ‘Jellyfish-shaped UFO/UAP Spotted on Mars. This one seems to be interacting with the surface.
‘It also reminds me of a tripod-like object.’
Some have compared the distant object to the giant alien walkers seen in the science fiction movie ‘War of the Worlds.’
However, many skeptics argued that the small black figure standing in the distance was nothing more than corrupted pixels in Curiosity’s photo.
Moreover, the photo with the object was the last image posted on NASA’s website for that day. The next picture from Curiosity was taken nearly two hours later with the camera pointed in a different direction
Another doubter claimed the object was actually a human-made craft.
Specifically, they claimed it was the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which made the first powered and remotely controlled flight on another planet in 2021.
However, this claim was quickly debunked as Ingenuity is more than 2,000 miles away in a completely different crater on Mars.
Curiosity rover has been exploring Gale Crater since 2012. The area is a huge impact crater roughly the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, with a towering mountain rising from its center.
Scientists believe this location will provide more evidence that life once existed on Mars thousands, and possibly millions, of years ago.
Like the Perseverance rover, it is using onboard instruments to study rock layers, clay deposits and climate history to look for microbial traces of life.
‘Looks like a tower or some type of structure, a dome on top… a relic from Mars distant past civilization,’ one person describing the object from 2023 claimed.
‘Looks like a scarecrow to me! Really, what is it? Doesn’t look like a dust devil!’ another viewer said.
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Another doubter claimed the object was actually a human-made craft. Specifically, they claimed it was the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which made the first powered and remotely controlled flight on another planet in 2021. But this craft was 2,000 miles away
As Perseverance and Curiosity send back more and more images from the Martian surface, eagle-eyed viewers have been finding a growing number of strange objects which look like doorways, ancient statues and even people walking on the Red Planet.
Such discoveries frequently capture public attention because the human brain naturally attempts to recognize familiar shapes in ambiguous images, a phenomenon known as pareidolia.
It is the same psychological effect that can cause people to see faces in clouds, animals in rock formations or human-made structures across the barren Martian landscape.
Mars has produced several famous examples, most notably the so-called ‘Face on Mars,’ which was photographed by NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter in 1976.
Higher-resolution images later revealed that the apparent face was an ordinary eroded hill whose human-like appearance resulted from shadows and the relatively poor quality of the original photograph.
NASA and the Trump Administration are now planning for the first manned mission to Mars by the end of the decade.
