Spirit discovers life on Mars

A Chinese website has reportedly posted the first sighting of Martian life in the form of a mysterious figure caught on camera by the Spirit rover: A closer look at the mystery Martian figure According to the Mail on Sunday, the sighting came after alien hunters spent "years" scouring NASA images for evidence of little green …

[Paul Naylor]

Trick of the light

It's obviously a shadow or some weird rock formation. The funniest reaction has to be the Daily Mail's precis of the photo. The headlines next week will be something along the lines of "House prices soar as priority housing given to Martians".

And the Express will be "Madeleine McCann in Martian kidnapper / Princess Diana link"...

If I'm wrong then, of course, I welcome our Martian Overlords...

[Ben Cross]

Little Green Men!!!

Hey! i know martians are meant to be "green"...but where is the green colouring on that thing?

looks more brown to me! - like its been a martian who hasn't washed for many a year.

[Smallbrainfield]

I looks a bit like the Copenhagen mermaid statue

http://www.fantompoet.com/index.php?showimage=489

[Anonymous Coward]

Its...

The Virgin Mary!

How long before NASA auctions it off to a casino via eBay?

[Anonymous Coward]

it's....

a tusken raider!

[Joey]

That's not a figure...

There is NO life on Mars and that is not a figure. It's just a statue of a woman beckoning!

[Paul F]

Golly.

And it must be related to Bigfoot and Nessie, since it's out of focus (always a guarantor of authenticity).

[Anonymous Coward]

is it just me or....

any one else think that this is just a effect of the rocks on the ridge and on the ground behind?

[Pete mcQuail]

Pizza home delivery

does work out there after all then.

[michael]

did I not see him

on starwars?

[dek]

And another!

Isn't that a peeping tom type figure in the upper left?

[Chris Miller]

Repeat after me:

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.

[Anonymous Coward]

Comment on ‘Spirit discovers life on Mars’

It's a Jawa...

[Anonymous Coward]

Mars *is* Tatooine

Clearly, this photo shows a Tusken raider lurking about the surface of Mars.

[Carl]

Mars or Tattooine?

Looks like a Tusken Raider to me.

[Matt]

where are the Hendersons?

looks like bigfoot is loose on mars....

[Andrew]

One word.

Pareidolia.

[Harvey Trowell]

The Little Marsmaid

Looks a bit like that statue in Copenhagen, I wonder if it's a copy.

Actually, looks a bit more like a rock shaped a bit like the above, but then "Spirit discovers rock on Mars" isn't much of a headline, is it?

I'll get my coat, the title was a shocker and I'll be lucky not to be court-martianed. I'll get my other coat too.

[Johnny FireBlade]

They're having a laugh...

Such speculation is worthy of Ian Hislop himself! That's funny! ROFL!

[Anonymous Coward]

@David

It is just you.

[Dennis]

Looking in the wrong place

Damn. We've all been looking in the wrong place. It's not Area 51. The Martians have visited Copenhagen and tried to copy the Little Mermaid statue.

[Peter Darby]

Jawa or Tusken raider?

YOU be the judge!

[Senor Beavis]

It's...

Paris Hilton

[Chris Jones-Gill]

It's not SandPeople, but we are meant to think they are

No Gaffi sticks or bantha tracks, only imperial stormtroopers are so precise ;-)

Or on a more musical note...

The chances of anything coming from Mars,

Are a million to one they said,

The chances of anything coming from Mars,

Are a million to one, but still they come.

[jai]

tusken raider

it's definately a Sandperson - Jawa's wear much darker clothing.

Spirit needs to be careful though "Sandpeople always ride single file to hide their strength and numbers."

i'm off to the Tarshi station to pick up some power converters.....

[Andrew]

@ Chris Jones-Gill

Dee-dee-doo.... doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo...

Dee-dee-doo.... doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo...

[Anonymous Coward]

amanfrommars

He has been posting on the Reg for ages

[b166er]

Well done the author

for providing all necessary links and materials.

I reckon it's the petrified remains of the knight of the First Crusade from Indiana Jones; The Last Crusade.

Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

You...

...ain't seen me, right?

[Geoff Webber]

what next

Black helicopters !

[Anonymous Coward]

That'll be a siren then

Obviously just flown in from Titan, which is why we didn't spot it before.

[Skaplanet]

Pose ?

Looks like Marvin The Martian is the

Happyner in the most unusual "Brenting" location winhttp://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/happy_32.png

[MG]

Phew, they're only 3 inches tall.

Nice to know we could fend off an invasion with a couple of hungry cats.

[Andy Taylor]

Was it a prank by the same person....

...who placed this small pink dinosaur?

http://www.geonet.org.nz/images/volcano/volcams/whiteisland/whiteis.jpg

[Les Matthew]

Re: amanfromMars

But not recently from what I've seen.

Now we know why. ;)

[Torben Mogensen]

If you look long enough...

... at eroded rocks, you will eventually find one that looks interesting (for suitable definitions of "interesting").

Given these sad "alien hunters" have apparently spent man years on this stuff, it is a wonder they haven't found anything sooner.

But, really, it is probably just the flash-frozen remains of a member of a top-secret failed manned mission to Mars. :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

it's patterson's bigfoot!!

http://paranormal.about.com/library/blclassic_patterson_bigfoot.htm

that thing pops up pretty much anywhere.

[Dan]

You're all wrong

I think you'll find it is amanfrommars - note the lack of complete gibberish in this thread? That's because he has nipped home for a holiday.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ewok!

It's not a Jawa, or a Tusken raider, it's a stranded Ewok!

[Paul]

Poor security

They are producing these images on the same set that the so called Moon landing was created on. There must be plenty of places on this planet with this type of terrain. Use of a colour filter rather than the Black and White images from the 'Moon' now make it look like Mars.

Somebody obviously got through the security perimeter and ended up in shot.

Mine is the foil hat, thanks. Taxi!

[Craig]

of course

if you look closely enough you can clearly see the rock woman snaking on a crisps bearing an image of Christ.

[Anonymous Coward]

Aha! Bin Laden

I knew the bearded cnut must be somewhere..

So do I get a reward for pointing out where to send the missiles?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's Lord Voldermoort!!!

You can clearly see Nagini beneath him.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not very PC, but...

So I guess the second shock revelation is that at least some of these Martians are gay? (see the "I'm a little tea-pot thing" with going on with its wrist). I know it's not interplanetarily politically correct, but someone had to say it...

[Andrew Campbell]

Burton R.

<voice type="Richard Burton">No one would have suspected that we were being viewed from mars, like insects under a microscope.</voice>

[Lloyd]

It's quite simple

Send the rover back there and wait, after all:

"Sand-people scare easily but will soon be back in greater numbers"

[Edward Pearson]

Obvious.

Its a rock formation and a shadow, or maybe its santa holding a bag of ferrets, fuck knows.

[theotherone]

isn't that

Al Gore....?

[Martin Gregorie]

That's not all....

Follow the rock-woman's gaze past the blackish rock in PIA10214.jpg and you find... Skippy the Kangaroo!

[Andy Hards]

@ Torben Morgensen

He/she/it posted a few comments on the last BOFH just a few days ago.

[steve]

1 sure way to know if its real

is when the government tries to cover it up lol

"its one of our early test weather balloons honest"

Then we'll know the real deal

[Anonymous Coward]

Bad taste maybe

But could it be Steve Fosset wandering around after the first "millionaire adventurer" private space trip to Mars? It can't be Richard Branson, Spirit would be finding a sea of "Virgin Spacelines" signage and press kits if it was.

[thomas k.]

Dervish

Looks to me more like a dervish from Guild Wars. Seems to have dropped his scythe somewhere, though.

[Brian]

Necron

It looks like a Necron Wraith! We knew it, the machine god does live on mars!

[Anonymous Coward]

must be a terorist

better spend many trillions of dollars to go and nuke the Martians, since they might have WMDs

[Bad Beaver]

@ Paul F

It looks exactly like Bigfoot, to be precise!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's not SandPeople, but we are meant to think they are

Wow. I thought I was the only person to own Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds.

[John Parker]

amanfrommars

I hope amanfrommars is reading all the comments about him (from mars via some kind of tunnelling wifi).

Do ya know what amanfrommars's wife is called...?

awomanfrommars.

Mine's the tight-fitting futuristic lycra tunic, with the mobile phone in the shape of a Star Trek communicator badge, if you please. Space-taxi!

[benito darder oliver]

it's a goof...

it's not more plausible that's somebody from the maintenance crew from the rovers?

or maybe somebody from the crew of "capricorn one"?

btw...how i would like to have all the free time needed to spot that in that huge photo... Sic...

[MikeC]

Red!

This this is the problem with leaving automated robots roaming around in the desert with red colour filters on the camera lenses. People will inevitably end up wandering into shot before being chased off by people in black helicopters!

Paris, because I wasn't sure which icon to use - the alien for the martian explanation or get my coat so I don't have to rush finding it later when the nice men in black helicopters some looking!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm...

Looks like Nigel and Ozzie got their wormhole generator working then!

(For those who get the reference, did anyone else think there was a rather strong resemblance between the above two characters and Woz & Stevie J?)

[Kevin Peacock]

I for one....

....welcome our new Martian overlords.

[Adrian Esdaile]

He's not the Messiah! No, wait! HE IS!

It's that wacky fictional Aramaic dude - JESUS! Quick, phone Ebay and get some of those idiot casinos bidding!

[Luther Blissett]

Hallelujah! And now...

perhaps NASA boffins can get down to some serious science without having their press officers continually e-mailing them demanding to know "Have we found it yet? When are we going to find it? Are we going to find it? Is that IT? Yuk - you mean to say THAT is intelligent?"

Just don't tell them about life on Jupiter.

[bothwell]

Yes!

By dek - Isn't that a peeping tom type figure in the upper left?

Yes! He's wearing a tie! Wait, maybe he's a Man in Black.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Anonymous Coward - amanfrommars's wife is called?

His mother

amumfrommars

His Sister

Well that's obvious - Paris Hilton!

[Ray]

Life on Mars

Its Lord Lucan..

Finaly found after all these years

[Aries1B]

Look to the right...

...on the panoramic pic. (Yes, dear, those pints are mine.) *Ga-Gulp* See the rectangular 'thing' that doesn't look like a building foundation? No? *Imbibe* Didn't think so. *Quaff*

Someone take my keys; my this gutter looks comfy; g'night.

[Anonymous Coward]

Found!

So that's where Bin-Laden's been hanging out...

[herman]

He must have grokked it

Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land:

“Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed"

[Mr Larrington]

Yerrall wrong!

It's Lord Lucan. That bomber on the moon was getting a bit crowded with Elvis, Glenn Miller and Shergar.

[Jon Axtell]

Scale

If you look at the big picture and see how far away the "figure" is from Spirit, you'll find that it's not that far. Therefore the "figure" is probably only inches^h^h^h^h^h^h centimeters high. Not just brown martians, but eensy-weensy-tiny brown martians.

[Paris because she probably on mars, her mind seems to be at least!]

[William Towle]

Million to One ... Against

"Or on a more musical note...

The chances of anything coming from Mars,

Are a million to one they said,

The chances of anything coming from Mars,

Are a million to one, but still they come"

Damn poetic license. Better-known that version may be, but I've always thought it makes more sense to quote the book/radio version(s*): "The chances of anything man-like coming from Mars are a million to one against"

* Patrick Moore as Ogilvy: inspired.

[TeeCee]

Tiny.

Crikey, just found it in the big piccie. If they're that small we are so screwed.

A humble diplomatic apology ain't going to compensate for the fact that we've been rolling our giant, city-crushing, spiky-wheeled robots all over their planet for quite a while now.

[stuart meadowcroft]

Duh!

It's aliens alright, but a curveball from those from far-off planets - if they can keep us guessing within our own solar system long enough they'll have time to perfect the force field that will stop us from ever getting beyond pluto and infecting the rest of the galaxy.

[Francis Boyle]

According to the Google Ads

It's an angel guide. Just about says it all really.

[Anonymous Coward]

Also available in white...maybe

Anyone else notice how dirty the panels are? Maybe our martian friend over there can come over and give the panels a wee wipe..

[Francis Boyle]

BTW

It's clearly Sil, the evil little slug creature from 'Vengeance on Varos'. And you people call yourself Doctor Who fans. (Though you'lll be forgiven if it turns out that el Reg has invented a brain wipe technique to remove all memories of everything relating to Colin Baker. If so make an exception to 'Vengeance' - it was decent little satire.)

PS: nice to see that The Register's cookies now work with Opera.

[Neil Smith]

Now that's something...

I would buy for a dollar.

[Doug]

Its....

..all's thats left of someone blindly following a Satnav gizmo...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not again...

"Stupid techs. I told them to keep off the sound stage while we shot the pictures..."

[andy gibson]

@ Francis Boyle

I certainly don't call myself a Doctor Who fan. I don't live with my parents and have a real girlfriend and everything.

[Anonymous Coward]

Peeping Tom?

Surely, since it was a Chinese team that discivered this phenomenon, that should be Peip'ing Tom (unfortunately, the modern spelling would be Beiping, which ruins the pun. Don't the Chinese have a sense of humour?)

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes ! It's Amy !

My image enhancement software reveals it to be Amy Winehouse leaving rehab.....

[M.J.Smith]

M.J.Smith

I took the clearest image I could find and tweaked it the best that I could. I swear that it shows Captain Kirk fighting the green lizard creature from Star Trek.

I have a feeling this is an early "April Fools" joke. I believe someone cut and pasted images from the T.V. show onto an actual immage from NASA.

[The Other Steve]

OOOOOOOOOO LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

No Alacrity, it's not just you.

[Prasanth]

IT's a fake image

I found a website: http://www.jojas.com/news_details.aspx?newsid=2826 showing the real secret behind this picture

[black_triangles]

yeti / bigfoot / martian

is it me or does it look like our chinese freinds took an american legend and photoshoped it on mars. either that or the flew it up there on there last attempt to beet russia on to mars ??