NASA Spots a Bizarre 'Jellyfish' Floating on Mars. Here's What We Know.

NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers have captured unusual-looking objects on Mars, but a recent “jellyfish” shadow spotted by Curiosity likely isn’t anything biological. The feature appeared in an image taken on Aug. 20, 2023 at 22:27:46 UTC and resembles a jellyfish silhouette on a dark patch of the Martian landscape. However, Curiosity took additional photos of the same scene 13 seconds and 25 seconds earlier with the same NavCam instrument, and neither earlier image showed the effect. The likely explanation is a cosmic-ray charged particle striking Curiosity’s silicon detector, creating an artifact in the image. Mars lacks Earth’s global magnetic field and has an atmosphere with about 0.5% of Earth’s mass, leaving the rover more exposed to energetic particles that can produce bright spots or streaks.