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A recent study claims to have found evidence for mushroom-like life forms on the surface of Mars. As it happens, these particular features are well known and were discovered by cameras aboard NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, shortly after it landed in 2004.
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Mushrooms on Mars. 5 unproven claims that alien life exists
They are not, in fact, living organisms at all, but “hematite concretions” — small sphere-shaped pieces of the mineral hematite, and their exact origin is still debated by scientists. Hematite is a compound of iron and oxygen and is commercially important on Earth. The spherical rocks on Mars may have been created by the gradual accumulation of the material in slowly evaporating liquid water environments. They could also have been produced by volcanic activity.
But What
Either way, mushrooms they are not. The area around Opportunity’s landing site is littered with them they can be seen all over the surface and were also found buried beneath the soil and even embedded within rocks.