NASA rover discovers rubbish on the surface of Mars

Humans have proven themselves as the most wasteful species on Earth, and now we’ve somehow managed to get trash on the surface of Mars too.

NASA's Perseverance rover stumbled upon something surprising recently after finding landing debris from its own arrival on the planet.

Thermal material could be seen stuck in a jagged rock. It had previously been used to shield the craft from extreme temperatures as it travelled through space and into Mars’s atmosphere.

While its primary objective is to search for martian life forms, they certainly wouldn’t have counted on encountering a piece of rubbish originally contained within its own landing craft.

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A tweet from Nasa’s Perseverance rover account said: "My team has spotted something unexpected: It’s a piece of a thermal blanket that they think may have come from my descent stage, the rocket-powered jet pack that set me down on landing day back in 2021.”

It continued: “That shiny bit of foil is part of a thermal blanket – a material used to control temperatures. It’s a surprise finding this here: My descent stage crashed about 2 km away. Did this piece land here after that, or was it blown here by the wind?”

What is baffling is how the piece of debris actually got there. It was found two kilometers away from where the landing gear crash landed on the planet’s surface.

"Did this piece land here after that, or was it blown here by the wind?" Nasa posted.

It comes as the perseverance rover seems to have been taken into the hearts of astronomy fans around the world, after the internet developed an obsession with the Mars rover and the 'pet rock' it's been spending the past few months with.

The craft has teamed up with an unlikely companion having first been seen to have acquired a rock inside its back wheel back in February.

Nasa has now stated that the rock has now broken a record for hitchhiking on the craft.

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